


Once upon a Snowfall

by Achini



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-07 09:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18407438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achini/pseuds/Achini
Summary: Jung Eunji always wanted to write her own love storyOn the night of that Christmas Eve, she finally does.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> To you,
> 
> from me,
> 
> A Very Christmas!
> 
> (When you're in love, its Christmas everyday!)

My mother was a storyteller. Since my younger days, I grew up with her telling me enthralling fairy tales; of magic and castles and fire breathing dragons, the unsuspecting princesses stumbling upon the love of their lives coming through woods and sweeping them right off their feet. As a little girl, it used to be my favourite part of the day, when she tucked me into bed at night and uttered her marvellous stories in her sweet, lowly voice, her slender fingers running gently through my hair until I fell asleep. I could still remember how I used to fight sleep every night so that I could hear her stories to the end of them. But there were nights when it was too cold or when I was too tired that I had unconsciously drifted away. Those were the stories that I had never heard the end of, because every single day, it was a new story; there wasn’t a single one which was repeated again.

My mother was a story teller, so much so that she sometimes seemed to be living in a fairy-tale herself. As much as I loved her unconventional abilities of coming up with hundred different stories every single day, twenty-five-year-old me hardly had the patience to tolerate her. She believed that every single person had their own fairy-tale. As herself. Out of all the stories that she loved to tell the Twenty-five-year-old me, there was this one in particular that she loved to tell the most. It was her very own love story. She and my dad had met in some strange situation where she had walked into the wrong karaoke room where she’d found my dad drunk and miserable after a bad break-up, and miraculously it was the same night that she had had a break up with her then-boyfriend herself. ‘It was almost as if god had planned it out for me!’ She would never forget to add whenever she recited her story. What disappointed her the most was that I, her only daughter had no excitement in her life. I had no story; I had no love story to tell my children and grandchildren every day of my life. And for this reason, in a fruitless attempt to convince herself that I wasn’t of the unfortunate percentage of eternal singletons, she tried to create my fairy-tale herself.

The thing was, though, despite their rather exquisite story of chance encounter, my parents hadn’t the happiest marriage in the world. It wasn’t like they weren’t happy or anything. But there were certain things about them which worried me, which kept me on toes and up in the night as they always struck to me as odd...for two people who claimed to be so much in love. At times, for me, it appeared as if my mother was exhausted of being herself. Every morning she woke up to my father yelling after her and her responding to every one of his beck and call. I had seen her running across the hall with his coat and lunch in her hands, preparing breakfast every morning only to have him walking away without even telling her goodbye. It almost seemed as if it was only her who did her part to keep their marriage from collapsing around them, my father doing the bare minimum himself. All he did was yelling and complaining when he wasn’t bossing my mother around; and his behaviour towards her had consecutively made me feel that he was convinced that he was entitled to do that to her just because he had a big voice and a stronger stature, as if the way he treated her was anything to be justified. I asked my mother once, when we were making dinner one night, whether she was happy living her life like this. She looked over at me, baffled as if it was anything that I should even ask. “Of course,” She told me, shrugged, and turned back to concentrate on her vegetables. “I’ve married the most perfect man, haven’t I?” And I had stared at her for a moment too long, my hand clenched at my side lest I allowed my words on lose.

I supposed the reason why I had never written my fairy-tale was because I was afraid; afraid of ending up like my mother one day.

It was somewhere later in the year that she started setting me up on blind dates. She would float into my room, all happy and excited to announce that another one of her friends, or a lady from a charity event or a business dinner wanted their son to meet me; and the next think I would know was that I was being transported to a fancy Seoul restaurant in a car that my dad has sent in, on my way to meet the handsome stranger that would possibly sweep me off my feet. It’s been a couple of months now, and I had been on couple of dates myself. The handsome stranger who’d sweep me off my feet was yet to be found, and my fairy-tale didn’t show the prospect of writing itself. I was tired. I had met and dated more men than I had shoes in my closet, and at some point, I had decided that I didn’t want to acquaintance men anymore in my life.

But that didn’t mean there was any stopping to my mother. She lived as if she had the complete control of my life, and to some extent, I suppose that she did. I felt trapped in a life that I didn’t want to live, that no longer felt mine. My mother decided when I should meet a man, whom I should meet, down to what I should wear and what I should say when I actually meet him, and that, for me, felt suffocating. I strived for an ordinary life of an ordinary girl who met people in sweaty crowded busses and busy streets, who had lukewarm coffee spilled down her shirt in a busy commute and returned home after an eventful night out and a surreptitious kiss from a man I barely knew. Perhaps that wasn’t the kind of life the ordinary girl spent. I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t tell. But that was the carefree life that I wanted to spend. I didn’t want to be like my mother. I wanted to escape.

Which brought me to now, to tonight, to when I stood out in the busy Seoul streets, attempting to flag a taxi with a day-bag in my hands.

It was Christmas eve, and the roads were unsurprisingly crowded for the festivities of the night. It was cold out, and my skin felt numb and frozen by the wind. Behind me were unsuspecting nightly street-goers; couples hand in hand, groups of friends laughing boisterously among themselves and drunkards struggling to find their ways home through the crowd. The line of shops behind me were mostly closed, except for the shady karaoke bars and the kind of clubs which stayed on business all night long. And almost all of them were brilliantly decorated for the Christmas night.

A couple of taxies passed by, none giving even a slightest glance at my direction. One slowed down, took in the sight of my day bag and drove off, another one from which a woman climbed out rather rudely snapped at me that he was done for the day. It wasn’t easy flagging a taxi in Gangnam, especially on the Christmas eve. A part of me was dubious already as to why I decided tonight was the appropriate time to do what I had planned, and a part of me didn’t want to push it behind. I tightened my hand on my bag even tighter and lifted my wool scarf high enough to cover half my face. And then I stuck my hand out to the vehicles hurriedly passing by. Giving up was for the cowards, running away was for the cowards too, but sometimes, running away, for some people, was the bravest thing to do.

It took me a couple of fruitless attempts before a taxi finally pulled in. With a great big sigh, I hauled my bag into my hand and moved towards it. “The train station” I informed the driver over the rolled down shutter and made it to open the rear door when suddenly, a second hand reached for the door past me.

“Excuse me” I said as I stepped back, realising that it was a man who had bequeathed me with his company. He looked down at me, his eyes glimmering slightly under the decorative lights, yet furious. “I’m sorry, but its mine” He said to me.

“What do you mean yours? I flagged it” I returned. I glanced down at my watch, fifteen minutes before the train boarded and I had speciously underestimated my time. It was one of those classic situations of running for the same taxi at once, yet, as I was running late to my train, I was in no position to entertain a man who wanted to claim the taxi which was mine.

“Because I called for it. Over the phone” He raised his brows which nearly reached his hairline. “Now, if you excuse me”

“What’s happening out there?” Called the driver, sticking his head out the shutter. I glanced down at the driver, a kind looking man with droopy eyes, and by the corner of my eyes, I could see the photograph of a young girl stuck to his dashboard.

“Nothing. Just a misunderstanding” Said the man exasperatedly. “I called for you, so-,”

“Where was it you said you wanted to go, miss?” Asked the driver, interrupting the other. I glanced over at the man, he looked down at me and then tried to move past me towards the door. “Oh for god’s sake”

“Pardon?” I went at the driver.

“Can we please move? I don’t have time for this” Said the man behind me.

“The train station was it?” Asked the driver, not paying slightest attention to the man. I realised that I was doing wrong, wasting someone’s time; and if he had called for the taxi previously, I shouldn’t be standing here the first place. By the looks of it, the man had somewhere to be. A Christmas dinner perhaps? A family occasion? A date that he’d been excusing himself for getting late to? But then again, there was the driver who appeared genuinely concerned, and I felt it was rude to just walk away. And on top of that, I hadn’t enough time.

“I am going to the train station; can we please move?” Called the man again, who had now comfortably seated himself in the back seat.

“I know!” Yelled the driver, and I took a step back, baffled by the old man’s tone. “But I can’t leave behind a young lady by herself, surely!” The man groaned frustratedly from inside the car, followed by a ‘For god’s sake’ a second time as the driver turned to me. “Since we’re heading there anyway, I suppose we can take you along” he said.

“Oh, that’s-!” I started uncomfortably glancing at the fuming passenger. The driver smiled at me, a warm fatherly smile and I glanced at the photograph on the dashboard once more. Bowing in gratitude, I made to the backseat, but the angry passenger remained glued to his seat, his eyes fixated on his phone as he cursed under his breath. It was almost as if he couldn’t even see me there, as if I was an invisible form of a being that he could merely shove off his sight. A typical male specimen, I decided with a sigh. It was an ideal situation, surely; a win-win for both. We were both going on the same direction, and the taxi driver was actually willing to take us both, and it wasn’t like I was capable of physically harming him, and I didn’t have the likes of someone who’d mug him, surely? A typical male specimen, entitled and so full of himself. The truth was, I would have moved, I would have flagged another taxi if it wasn’t something he could help with; but this was a situation where one could actually be empathetic, even the slightest if you were a complete fool. I didn’t suppose this man was a fool. He didn’t appear to be. He was being a man, it was all.

“Excuse me-,” I started as politely as I could, but the man interrupted me, his eyes still focused on his phone, the shine of the screen reflected in the angry flames; “Not something that I consented to”

I opened my mouth, and then let it shut. A conceited, entitled man. It was for a reason that I steered clear of his kind.

“What is the problem now?” The driver called, yet again, and pushed himself between the two front seats. We were beginning to gain unnecessary attention from the fellow commuters around us, and was certainly running out of time. I began to shift on my feet, wanting to escape. The man lifted his eyes for a moment and glanced at the driver. “I didn’t say I agreed with you”

“Well, it’s up to you but I ain’t not going to leave a lady out in the cold.”

“And I’m in a desperate hurry” I interjected, glancing at my watch once more. I knew that I despised this man at first glance, I knew that I certainly didn’t want to be cramped inside the same car with him. But desperate situations led people to do the unthinkable. “Please? We can split the fair”

“And she’s asking nicely” Said the driver, tut-tutted and turned back to his seat. “Young men these days...”

The man looked even more exasperated, perhaps by the accusation and appeared at a loss between his pride and moral values. He glanced down at my day bag, up at my face, and I smiled pleadingly despite wanting to throw daggers in his direction. Then he let out a sigh. “Oh, for god’s sake” He repeated once more and then slid to the other side of the seat. “Get in”

Triumphant and relieved, I pulled the bag tightly into my hands and climbed into the car, closing the door behind me.

❄

They said that running away was for cowards, but it certainly wasn’t for me. For years, being raised as the only child, I had spent my life living up to my parents’ expectations. I educated myself, I groomed myself well, I behaved polite and lady like, never got involved in unnecessary trouble, dated the men they wanted me to date, hung out with the kind of friends only they approved of. I’ve never committed a crime, not even a small one like running a traffic light. I followed their desired path and graduated with a college degree in medicine, I trained as a nurse, and I didn’t even keep a pet at home, despite being frightfully lonely sometimes because my mum was allergic to them. But there were things and situations where I didn’t want to comply to. Things I knew, if I did, would destroy me. I read it somewhere that it was wrong of parents to control their children’s lives. They said that it would condition us to think that our sole purpose was making them happy, and I had believed so for some time in my life, myself. But I didn’t want to do it any longer. I didn’t want to be married off to a complete stranger and slave for his every call and desire. I didn’t want to be mum.

It was because of her that I decided that I wanted to steer clear of men for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to be dependent, as being dependent made us weak, and our weakness gave them the power. It was what my mother never realised as she hopped at every word my father spit at her. She was convinced that it was all out of love. She believed that women were fragile little roses that need to be consecutively cared after, and the men in their lives were the ones responsible of doing that. For her, we couldn’t exist on our own; it depended on the existence of a man, and I supposed she believed, as I hadn’t a man myself, that I was one of those little roses which was slowly withering away.

It was the bravest decision I made, to escape the sheltered, suppressed life that I had lived. As uncertain as it was, the escapade actually felt like a breath of fresh air to me. I felt the freedom at the tips of my fingers, being able to find a life of my own, away from the world that I once belonged to, away from my father’s relentless control and my mother’s worries and complains. And most importantly, the freedom of being able to live without a man whom my parents had supposedly decided suited me, a man who’d most definitely turn me into one of those women my mother turned out to be.

The taxi ride was quick and quiet. The man, still fuming, was deeply engrossed in his phone, and I was convinced he was a businessman or a busy government worker awaiting an important call or something along the line; but then I saw the reflection of his phone screen on the car’s shutter. He was concentratedly playing a game. I almost scoffed and rolled my eyes. Despite him acting all stuck up and thick skinned, he was just another ordinary man who found it necessary to set his tail on fire at every moment he thought he should.

As we arrived at the train station, both the man and I pulled out our wallets. The taxi driver looked over at us through the rear-view mirror and announced the taxi fare. I counted exactly half of it and pulled out a couple of notes. But when I offered my share of the amount, my grumpy companion had paid it all off on his own.

“You didn’t have to” I told him, the bunch of notes still crumpled up in my hand. He didn’t spare a glance at me as the taxi drove away. He returned his wallet back into his pocket and shrugged in response. “It’s fine” He told me and turned to leave. I looked down at my hand, the money still in it and then at him. It didn’t feel right to let him pay for it on his own. “Excuse me” I called, and he turned back to me slowly, appearing exasperated. I held out my hand. “Thank you...for your help. I really appreciate it” I told him with a bow.

“It’s fine, no problem” He muttered with a nod.

“And I didn’t mean to trouble you” I went on, crumpling he money in my hand. “I was just really late and desperate”

“I see” He returned, shifted on his feet and glanced over at me. “Well, it was nice meeting you, hope you’d have a good night””

“oh, uh yeah...” I replied, slightly intimidated by him. He wasn’t much different from before, only a little nicer, and I felt that he was one of those straight-forward, no bullshit men. I wondered what his story was. I wondered what sort of a person he truly was. And then I crumpled the money in my hand even more. “And uh...” I addressed him once more and lifted my hand to return the favour. “I was really hoping to split the taxi fair...so uh...you should have my half...I think”

He glanced down at my hand and took a step back as if my hands scalded him. “Oh no, it’s totally fine, it was my...err...pleasure”

“But that doesn’t really fit with me” I responded and pursed my lips. I wasn’t about to budge, nor was he. For a quiet moment, we both stared at my hand, the money scrunched in between my fingers as if it was a decision so hard to make. The time was ticking behind me, and I was running late to board my train.

“Please” I muttered.

“It’s...okay, really” He replied. We stared at the hand for even longer, and then it all happened so suddenly. Someone passed by, a dark looming shadow which soon disappeared among the crowd, and the wallet that I had tucked under my arm was no longer in my grasp. It took me a moment for the realisation to hit. My wallet was gone, all my money, my cards, everything, gone. I looked at my arms where it once was, then at the floor and then behind me. My acquaintance acted faster than I could even find my voice.

“Your wallet!” He yelled, and I gasped as he pushed past me and ran across the hall after a man who had already disappeared into the crowd. For a moment it was absolute pandemonium. The stranger war running through the crowd, the thief hurriedly swarming among them and taking off in a run. I was right on my feet after them, breathing, panting and heaving for breath, my feet hurting in my boots and definitely falling behind. I paved my way through the uncooperative commuters in a crime scene, and finally managed to locate the stranger who was standing amongst a swamp of undaunted people, looking around urgently, breathing hard and frustratedly pushing a hand through his hair. His hands were empty, and the thief was no where in sight. I felt a cold prickle down my skin which soon morphed into an unrelenting fear; the world started to collapse around me.

My money, all my money gone just like that. All the money I had to survive the rest of my escapade; gone.

“I... couldn’t...find...him” The stranger approached me, speaking breathlessly as he did. “I’m sorry”

I gazed up at him, noticed the way his eyes crinkled, almost in apology and pressed my palm onto my head. “Oh shit, oh shit”

“I think we should tell the police” He suggested helpfully.

But I couldn’t possibly. I was running away. I was supposed to have disappeared by the end of today, come next morning my family realising that I was gone, then frantically searching for me high and low while they tried to keep the news from slipping out lest it affected their work. But now, with all my money gone, I couldn’t be sitting in the police station, going all the way back to square one.

“No...no I can’t” I told him mindlessly as I stomped in circles, my hand in my hair. There had to be something I could do, something. I could take money from he ATM without the card; I’m eligible for that, or...or I don’t know, there was no other way to get hold of money other than from the bank...but then I realised, I emptied them all out except for my credit card, collected all the money I had and it was all in my wallet except for a measly dollar lost in my bag. I had left all the cards at home in case I accidentally used them. I had strategically planned out my escape so that they took longer to find me. But I hadn’t been strategic enough. I had missed the most crucial details.

“Why not?” Asked the stranger, and I realised that he still hadn’t gone off my radar.

“I... I just can’t, okay?” I snapped at him return.

“Whew, fine, I was just trying to help” He said and then fell quiet, curiously scrutinizing me. “Well, then at least you should cancel all your cards” He said.

“Huh?”

“Cancel your cards” He repeated, emphasizing on each syllable. “The banks are probably all closed right now, but I’m sure they have-,”

“There’s nothing in the cards” I said without thinking twice, my fingers threaded through my hair.

“Pardon?”

“There’s nothing in the cards because I took it all out. I can’t have them tracing me...oh shit, shit!”

There was silence, and I realised what I had done. I looked up at him, my hand covering my mouth, and he gazed at me curiously, his eyes scanning me as if he could quite possibly find anything on me that would tell a better story. “I’m not quite following you” He said.

I looked at him for a moment, searching for any warning signals. He could be anyone behind that careful gaze and unsmiling lips. He could be a policeman, someone who worked under my father, anything. I couldn’t let myself out, not like this. Not just yet. But then I realised that I had outed myself more than enough, I’ve lost all my money and here was a man who had involuntarily walked into my own mess. I had nothing to lose. This was, perhaps, the last time we would ever see each other after he would leave me behind, knowing the truth. We would never see each other again, and this would be the chance encounter, the kind of a story I had heard when I went to bed, the stories of which I never heard the end.

“I... I’m on the run, okay?” I told him, my voice lowly, so unlike myself. “I can’t go to the police or anything because I can’t let them find me. I can’t...I can’t go back either....” I can’t go back. That’s what it would come down to. I had escaped, I couldn’t possibly go back, but I also had nowhere to go. “Oh god” My feet felt numb, my head felt heavy, and I felt myself slowly sinking onto the ground, the world spinning around me.

“Woah hang on there” said the stranger and he carefully reached out to me. “Let’s sit down first”

Despite himself, he helped me towards a bench and sat down beside me. The rest of the world passed by around us, the night continued. I glanced down at my watch and I realised that my train had left just about five minutes ago. It wasn’t like I could have taken the train anyway. How could I? Having no means of surviving for the rest of my time? My hands were trembling, tears prickling my eyes. I thought I had it all planned well. I had overestimated myself, too confident of my abilities. What I hadn’t realised were the crisis situations, the fact that it would be the whole vast world against me. I pressed both my hands onto my face and let out an involuntary sob.

“Listen” said the stranger and I peeled my hands off my face. “I’ll...I’ll get you a coffee or something, and we’ll see what we can do”

I looked down at the duffel bag by his feet and I shook my head. “No, I’ve kept you long enough...It’s okay”

“It isn’t” He replied, sounding determined. “We’ll calm down first and see the options that you have”

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I asked in a teary voice.

“No” He sighed and shook his head. “That can wait...just hold up” He moved to climb up on his feet, and I quickly reached over to hold him back by the edge of his sleeve. He glanced over at me, worry etched over his brows. “It’s alright, I’m fine...”

“No coffee then?”

“I’m calm”

“Okay” he sighed and sat down on the bench once more. There was a moment of silence then, and we both watched as the other commuters passed by. Train stations were usually bustling on the Christmas eve as most of the village dwellers returned to their homes for Christmas in the very last minute. That’s what I supposed, at least. I wasn’t much of a traveller myself. The furthest I’d travelled was abroad a couple of times, in courtesy of my Father’s conglomerate, and I was pretty sure there were plenty of places that I hadn’t been to in Korea itself. And I hadn’t taken the train much often; I had a driver for long travels and drove my own car most of the time. It was strange, being in a station at an unlikely time of the year for me. If it was another time, I’d have observed the people, mingled with them, seen a world I probably had never seen.

But right now, everything which stood before me were dark and sombre, and almost every other strange man appeared a sneaky thief for me. I brought my bag closer to me and wished this stranger of mine wasn’t planning to kidnap me at the end of this all.

“So,” He started after a while and looked over at me. “What is your story?”

My story. My story. I felt a prickle under my skin. “I don’t.... have a story” I replied to him. Stories, for me, were what my life was almost entirely built around. I wanted my own story, and it never seemed to write itself the right way. And to be asked what it was by a complete stranger felt...rather intimate, although I tried not to feel that way.

As it happened, however, it was just his way of speech. “I mean, this whole ‘I’m on the run’ business, what’s that all about?”

“Oh” I shrugged and stared down at my feet. “From home” I told him. “From a situation I didn’t want to be in”

There was a moment of silence from his part, and I could almost feel the gears of his mind meshing and moving, trying to interpret me. In the end, he appeared to have given up on it. “Do you have anywhere to go?”

“To Busan” I said, thinking of the train that had already left me behind. “It’s my hometown. I was planning to go there, and decide what else afterwards”

“So, there was no plan”

“Going to Busan was the plan”

He nodded, and we fell quiet once more.

During that silence, I weighed my options. I could return home; that was the most sensible option that I had. I could pretend this never happened, put it all behind and return to the life that I had always had, being pushed and pulled around, a life that I had never felt was mine. That also meant I had to attend to the wretched dinner that was supposed to happen the next day, the one reason why I had decided it was tonight that I would escape. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t going to be that bad; another man, another possible date, another spontaneous affair under the sheets and never to call again. I could go on like this forever.

Or I could actually change my life.

I had this thought, when I decided to finally run away, that I had it all planned out. I recently received my nursing license, which meant I could land a job in almost any hospital out there. I thought I would move to Busan, to where in Busan, I couldn’t tell. Regardless, I could have leased an apartment with the money I had, found myself a job there and finally settle down. My parents would search for me, and I might perhaps return, only to inform them that I had always soughed a simpler life, one that they never really offered me. That I soughed a life where I was not mirrored as someone who was weak, dependant, hopeless; a typical woman in their eyes.

But tonight, at this moment, my whole world collapsed before me. I suppose one could never run away and disappear completely; the barricades always stood on our way. I hoped the thief would put the money into better use, at least. Thankfully I had left a measly bit in the accounts so that they won’t be closed down for the time being. I wanted my parents to be the ones closing down each of them, like a final showdown of something they never expected to happen. Never did I expect it would be what I would have to depend on until my next salary came in. I suppose one could be brave and foolish in their own way.

Beside me, my kindly stranger was still keeping me company as he quietly watched the passers-by. Earlier on when I had met him, I never suspected he had even an ounce of kindness in himself to offer me, but as he sat there with me, I felt an immense sense of gratitude towards him. I wasn’t sure why he was still here, what he was thinking, what he actually wanted to do. Perhaps he was convinced that I was another one of those weaklings, wanting someone to fall onto when the world clashed upon me. Perhaps he was convinced that he was exactly what I needed here; or perhaps, I was just thinking too far. All he wanted was to be a helping hand when I needed it the most.

He was quite handsome, I had to tell, if I hadn’t taken note of it earlier. It appeared as if he hadn’t been around here the past couple of months as his skin seemed to glow with a healthy golden shine. His hair was dark and neatly combed to a side, his forehead was wide, his eyes were wise and beautiful; they seemed to be alive. He seemed to be deep in his thoughts as his hand, particularly more beautiful than any pair of hands I’d seen, remained clasped before him. I stared up at him, at the side of his head, the tiny specs of brown in the dark and tried to make up his own story. I didn’t think he was married; someone bound with such responsibilities wouldn’t have the chance to reside in a place which offered the kind of skin that he had. I imagined him to be an artist, maybe. A writer, by the looks of his slender fingers; not even a touch of a workman’s hand. Maybe he was a story teller too, a different kind of a sorry teller; someone who painted the tales beautifully in someone’s mind in a way that they wouldn’t feel trapped in them, the kind of stories that my mum couldn’t make. But in the end, I gave up on trying. It was hard to interpret him, hard to write the story of someone whom I barely knew; so, I decided to question him myself.

“So, what is your story?” I asked through the quietness we mutually shared. He hummed almost distractedly, glanced over at me, then straight ahead. He let out a sigh.

“Same” He told me after a while.

I parted my lips, then allowed them to fall shut as I hadn’t anything to say in response. Same. What did he mean by it? What was he trying to say?

Perhaps, realising that he had somehow rendered me speechless, he gazed over at me, a strangely melancholic smile spread across his lips. He looked truly enchanting when he smiled, I should say. And that held me captive for a long time.

“Me too, I’m on the run” He said, glanced down at his duffel bag by his feet and let out a sigh. “From a situation that I don’t want to be in”

❄


	2. Chapter 2

It probably wasn’t every day that two run-aways ran into each other. I suppose this was what they conventionally referred to as Chance encounter. I tried to think of the probability of it happening; one out of ten, perhaps? If you assumed at least ten people decided to run away from their lives on the night of Christmas eve? But given the unlikeliness of the situation under usual circumstances, I had to shake the thought away. It wasn’t just a coincidence, a chance encounter. It was fate. It was a story to tell.

His name was Kim Sung Gyu, which he told me as we acquainted ourselves over our coincidentally (or fatefully) mutual understanding. I told him my name, Jung Eunji; you can call mi Ji, that’s what I went by, and he addressed me by my entire name as a staple of courtesy. He and I both decided that we were in a situation which required a drink. It wasn’t something that we came down with in the same way that we’d decided to run away from a difficult situation in life. He asked me as we sat in the slowly thinning crowd of the station; “I feel that this unlikely turn of events need a round of drinks, what do you say? All on me” I looked up at him, smiled and said; “As long as you’re paying” and that was how we finally found ourselves walking along the busy streets of Gangnam, searching for a not-so-shabby bar for the two of us to sit and have a drink in. As we walked, we shared most truths about ourselves. He was a legal consultant; ‘Not a lawyer, just someone who knew the stuff but didn’t apply’ he added with a laugh. Apparently, there was a lot of people who actually thought he had anything to do in the court, and he admitted he’d never been to an actual court in the entirety of his life.

“I’m a licensed nurse” I told him, and he said that he could tell. I looked like someone who helped people, apparently. I could only return to him a smile. I could tell the same, although he didn’t much look like it. But I hadn’t the sheer ability to admit things to him.

There weren’t many good bars open at that time of the day, and those which were open and also were good, were overcrowded and we both didn’t feel comfortable to be among a lot of people, given the circumstances. We walked on a bit further until the street became less urban and the crowd thinned out. We talked as we walked, less about ourselves but more about things which surrounded us. He was witty and fun, he said the kind of things that only the people in novels would say, and the image I had of him from our first encounter slowly began to wither away. We settled to drink at a roadside eatery in the end. There were a couple of them lining the seemingly empty apartment complexes, and we eased into one, its warmth welcoming us with a gust of wind which carried the delicious aroma of fishcakes cooking in. I suddenly felt ravenous. It’s been quite so long since I tasted a good hearty bowl of sweet rice-cake, fish cake and a fizzy round of Soju. The prospect of tasting them made my stomach rumble with anticipation. Sung Gyu led us to a table towards the corner, the cold wind blowing in, a hearty contrast to the heat inside the tent. There was a couple of patrons who glanced at us with curious eyes. I pulled off my coat, set my scarf aside and Sung Gyu hurried off to the food stand after asking me to settle in. I waited, staring after him as his tall dark figure hovered about the misty stall, the ladies behind the steamy pots smiling at him graciously, and I felt a tinge of an unspeakable emotion within. He looked completely out of place inside the hut, amongst the little crowd, but he still seemed to so effortlessly blend in with his polite nods and kindly smiles.

A moment later, he returned to our table, and an old lady followed, carrying a tray laden with an array of dishes and a couple of bottles of warm soju on tow.

“Here, help yourselves!”

“Thank you Imo! We’ll eat well” Sung Gyu replied in a voice which was a strange contrast to the man that I first met. He was being cute, which was unimaginable in the first place, and when he caught me staring at him, his ears turned red and he gave me a noncommittal smile.

The food was warm and delicious, the thick sweet sauce staining my lips and the Soju trickling down my throat with a mind-numbing pleasure. He would pour me a glassful, I would pour him one in return, and slowly the plates emptied, the alcohol kicked in; we were still talking, and the conversations have changed.

“You don’t mind me asking...” He started somewhere at that time, his empty glass tipped to a side as he gazed at me. “Eunji-Ssi...the situation” his eyes were fixed on me, the fine fringe of his hair which was previously pushed back was slowly unwinding, falling over his eyes. I pursed my lips, feeling more reckless than I had ever been.

I thought about the situation, meeting yet another suitor, handing the control of my life over to a man whom I barely knew. It really broke my heart, sometimes. People thought that being born into the rich was all about being able to own everything one ever wanted; the money, the luxury, all the technology and expensive things that they couldn’t afford. But being born into a rich house hold was all about power, and class and dignity; a bunch of people pretending to be happy in their made up lives, pushed and pulled around by the society’s demands, expectations crushing dreams and lives that had no control over. I couldn’t remember the last time I had enjoyed my life, the last time I was truly, indescribably happy. And I had to say, since the last time I had smiled genuinely or laughed or let myself unwind, this was the very first time.

So I felt reckless, reckless enough to let on the worries that had kept stewing in my mind, to a stranger who understood me a lot more than my parents ever did.

“Arranged marriage” I sighed, and slowly the jovial atmosphere between us began to flitter away. Sung Gyu stared at me for a moment, his gaze unreadable, a strange shine in his eyes. “That is...” He said in the end, and I raised my eyes towards him. I thought he was mocking me, a woman running away from an arranged marriage? Perhaps it wasn’t conventional in his lawyerly lifestyle. I scanned his expression, but I couldn’t possibly read his mind. He wasn’t mocking me; not even the slightest. What he was thinking at that moment, however, was beyond me.

“What?” I asked, and he slowly shook his head. “No, just...tell me about it” He said emphatically. “Is it that bad?”

I didn’t say anything for a moment, my fingers distractedly following the patterns on the plastic table, my thoughts disarrayed. Was it that bad? I thought to myself, recalling all the men I’ve been with, recalling all the dates I’d had. Then I remembered my mother, who was convinced that she had the most perfect love story but was unconsciously slaving for a man who probably didn’t even love her anymore, blinded by her beliefs.

“I...I don’t want to be married” I admit in the end. I realised it was something personal, something that I had never admitted out loud. I knew that I was afraid of what men could do to me. They would overlook my pain, they would overlook my insecurities, my fears. The centre of our world won’t be us, it would be them, and I would be the satellite in their solar system. I didn’t want to be that powerless. I didn’t want to be that, that; the smallest fragment in their vast world whereas they’d made our love appear the most precious. I was afraid of that life. And that’s what I told him. I told Kim Sung Gyu about my mum, and how I never wanted to be her. I told him about how I was afraid of marriage, of the prospects of a man, a stranger taking away the last hope of freedom that I had. He listened to me intently, nodding and serving with the impressions that I needed. At the end of my account, I was exhausted, and he knew a little too much than he should.

“I’m just afraid...I guess” I said, my head resting on my arm, my eyes focused somewhere beyond him, unconsciously following the late nightly patrons outside the tent. “Just imagine...someone making you so weak to the point that you have no grounds to stand on...isn’t that what marriage would do to you? I don’t want to be that person. I would want some comfort in my life, but that’s hardly what I could expect from a husband, isn’t it? I would just be as good as an exhibit in their house”

Sung Gyu was quiet for a very long time, and I couldn’t, yet again, tell what he was thinking. He was one of those people who was so guarded of their emotions; as many as expressions he seemed to carry. It was hard to read his mind, to see right through him, and so I found myself thinking about why he’d become so obscure. What was his story? Why wouldn’t he let on the things that he felt? What made him so guarded?

“I...” He started after a while, reached for the last remaining bottle of Soju and screwed open the lid. Then he made to pour it into his empty glass, but then decided against it and set it aside. “Eunji-Ssi, as I grew up in a different...sort of household, I truly don’t know what it’s like to be...” He pursed his lips and seemed to mull over what he wanted to say. “To be honest, I don’t have a dad”

There was a moment of silence following his revelation, and I felt a thick knot of guilt forming in my throat. I’ve admitted all the bad things I felt towards my own father to a man who probably terribly missed his father. I covered my face with my hand and let out a sigh, then I peeled them off me and avoided his eyes. “I’m....sorry, Sung Gyu-Ssi” I told him sympathetically.

“Don’t be sorry, really. I don’t remember him much. He passed when I was still very young” He told me, met my eyes and smiled. He had this sort of smile, a disarming smile which would stop your heart for a moment and you’d hold your breath. And that was exactly what I did. I held my breath, feeling like the world gave away beneath my feet. He reached for his bottle of Soju and poured glass-fulls for the both of us. “My mum and my sister raised me. My sister and I are fifteen years apart. My mum had had her when she was really young, and it had taken her and dad fifteen years to bring up their...company. She had me afterwards, so I could say, unlike my sister, I was born into luxury. Then my dad passed when I was eight years old...”

I nodded, tipped the glass off Soju down my throat and closed my eyes. As I did, I nodded to indicate I was still listening, and a reckless question came to my mind. “How old are you?” When he looked at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling, I quickly added; “If you don’t mind me asking, I mean-you don’t really have to tell me”

He laughed in response, a small chuckle, his shoulders jostling as his lips donned a boyish grin. “I don’t mind” He said and met my eyes. “I’m Twenty-nine, actually. Turning thirty in a couple of months”

I absorbed this information and naturally tried to calculate his sister’s age. I was partially aware of him watching me, too drunk to see his expression. When I met his eyes finally as I was unable to get her age right, he laughed again. “She’s forty-four, if you’re still wondering”

“Oh” I nodded, blood descending to my face and I tugged stray strands of hair behind my ear. He made me feel things, I realised with a pang when something twisted at the sight of his smile. He made me feel things that none of the men I’ve dated had ever made me feel.

“She’s a strong woman, my mum” Sung Gyu continued, after all the laughter had died down. “She educated the two of us despite her shortcomings, handled the loss of my dad really well. She didn’t let the company fall apart. She kept it going...and now we’re going pretty well, pretty big. I hadn’t the time to be engaged in it much until I was done with my studies, so I can safely say, as women, the two of them did it pretty much on their own”

“What’s the company about?” I asked him.

“Construction” He nodded. “We have a couple of branches everywhere, and I work as the chief legal advisor in our branch in Thailand”

Thailand. That explained the nice sunny tan of his skin. I thought about everything he said, a woman who built an empire all on her own. I thought about my mum, who perhaps didn’t have the sheer mental capacity to even think about ordering her own food in a fast food place, let alone build an entire company.

“I think...” He started after a while, interrupting my thoughts. “I think it depends on your surroundings. How people think, how they behave. Perhaps, the way you feel is a result of where you grew up in and the way you were raised; it’s how you were conditioned to think” He paused for a moment to scrutinize me, and I felt undeniably transparent. “I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing. I’m just saying that it’s just how our lives are shaped”

“Maybe” I nodded and gazed down at the empty glass in my hand. “Maybe if I grew up with different parents...” I thought about the prospect of myself being with someone who wasn’t controlling, who was letting me have the freedom I deserved, and then I realised it was probably just wishful thinking. For Sung gyu, obviously, circumstances were different. We were Chaebol’s by family, a generation of Chaebol’s who’d only associated Chaebol’s and their lifestyles were all the same. In our families, women didn’t run the company; they ran the household. They made sure there weren’t a spec of dust on the mantel piece, that they always dressed well even as they sat in their too-large homes on their own. They handled dinner parties and charity balls and donation events; not business meetings and yearly budget presentations.

“No” I let out a sigh. “You see, my father raised me to take up a profession that he believed women traditionally took over. A nurse; that’s something you’d imagine a woman to be. He raised me in this certain way...well, if he had a son, he would have been raised differently. He would have the power that I, as a woman, would never have”

Sung Gyu nodded attentively and tilted his empty glass to a side. “Conditioned thinking...isn’t it? It’s not that one is particularly powerful or powerless...per se. It can be in their own way. I suppose, in a context like this, it’s comes down to what we are conditioned to think. Like- ‘I am a woman, so this is how my life should be’. Perhaps that is why, with marriage, you immediately imagined that you would end up like your mum. And it could have happened too, if you were marrying a man who was conditioned to think that he held the power over a woman, himself”

“Isn’t that how all are conditioned to think?” I asked him. I couldn’t imagine Sung Gyu being controlling; Sung Gyu rubbing the dust off a table and calling his wife an incompetent wench. But then I can’t imagine him anything outside of it as well as that was the only sort of husbands and men that I have met in my life.

“That depends...doesn’t it? It depends in where you’re coming from; like...well, my sister-no offense to you but-,” He raised a palm at me apologetically and I nodded. “She’s pretty strong. She’s now the CEO of dad’s company as mum is too frail to be involved in that stuff. And I can’t imagine her getting bossed around by a man...” He paused thoughtfully and added. “In fact, her husband is pretty supportive. We thought an outsider would screw things over, but he’s doing alright. So, I suppose, like I said, the way he was conditioned to think was different”

I stared at him for a moment, and then pouted in response. “That may be true. But for me, I will mostly definitely end up in the same place as mum, because dad wouldn’t settle for anyone lesser. He would want someone like himself.”

He stared back at me and tilted his head to a side. “So why let him decide?”

“I don’t have a choice”

He watched me carefully, and then smiled in this way that I could swear something twisted in my heart. “Make it that he doesn’t have a choice”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I left it hanging. I just smiled and told him no more.

We went on quietly drinking for a while, him deep in thought, and me looking around. Somewhere close by, I could hear the Christmas mass going on. I left home at around nine in the night, and it had turned eleven thirty already. I thought about what I could do next. My parents were at a party, from where they would go straight to the mass. They were quite religious, they never missed out on the mass. So, I had a bit of time to decide what my next step would be. Then I looked up over at Sung Gyu; whom I realised was gazing at me. Our eyes met, a frightfully enigmatic moment, and my hearts constricted. When he smiled, a small, gleeful one for no apparent reason, I realised, I didn’t want the night to end. I wanted to talk. I wanted this small bubble to last forever before the reality could hit in.

“So” I went as a conversation starter. “What was your situation...if you don’t mind me asking?”

He stared at me a moment too long, is cheek resting on his hand, his hand which I thought was strangely beautiful, and blinked drunkenly at me.

“Same” He replied.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, too baffled to form a coherent response. He continued to watch me, smiling, and it made me feel difficult to even breath, that unyielding gaze of his. He was doing things to me. And on top of that...

He let out a small laugh, and I wondered if he was too drunk. But then he shook his head. “Strange, isn’t it? Two people running away from arranged marriage crossing paths on a Christmas eve?”

“Doesn’t...happen every day” I muttered in response.

“Something from a cliché fairy-tale” he nodded and then he stared again. I melted under his gaze, something was happening to me; and I suddenly wanted to escape. But still I wanted to talk.

“So what is your story?” I asked him.

“It’s a lot different from yours” He shrugged.

“Tell me” I urged him to continue and rested my chin on my folded hands.

“Well, the thing is, my mum and sister decided on my marriage like it was a business deal” He started.

“That’s interesting”

“Not for me” He sighed. “Like I told you, I’m the legal advisor at the Thai branch of our company; but the plan is for me to take over as the Managing Director after my uncle resign. And that means I would be pretty much residing in Thailand, taking over the complete responsibility. We’re growing there; we have several major projects happening and so I need to be around the whole time if I were to take it over”

“Oh...” I gulped, and my eyes involuntarily fell over his strong, tanned arms.

“So that means I won’t be returning for a while” He went on “My mum thinks I should get marriage out of the way before I take up he place as I wouldn’t have the time to focus on anything else afterwards. Besides I can’t be the Managing director and not married...” He swallowed hard and looked down at his hands. “If...something ever happened to me...like my dad...there has to be someone to take over...”

I remained quiet, something bursting open inside me, and when he looked up to meet my eyes, I felt my heart constrict and I held my breath. “So yeah...that’s how arranged marriage came about”

“Oh...” I nodded and grasped onto the cold of my glass. The bells of the church nearby were chiming outside. It was almost Christmas. “So...how did tonight come about?”

He looked at me in this sort of way that I felt the ground give away beneath my feet. He had that kind of effect; it was something about his eyes, his smile, which seemed to hold so many stories, so many things he wouldn’t possibly put into words, and constantly kept me drawn to him.

“Call me unconventional, but I believe in love” He replied. I couldn’t say anything, and something inside me just snapped. A man who believed in love. It seemed like I was coming across the kind of things that I would never in normal circumstances. I suppose what they say is true; Christmas is a magical time.

“You see, I don’t want to be married to someone before I had fallen love with them.” Sung Gyu continued matter-of-factly. “I believe in order, I believe in the right way to do things. Marriage is not something that I or anyone can up and decide, is it? It’s not something that affects only me. It affects the...other party as well. As much as I want to be comfortable in the place that I am in, I want her to be so to. I want us to be compatible, supportive, understanding. I want us to be happy. I want us to be in love” He paused for a moment and let out a heavy sigh. “That’s hardly something that arranged marriage had to offer”

“So you decided to run away” I said, almost breathlessly.

“I decided to run away” He smiled.

“So, what was your plan?”

He tilted his head thoughtfully. “I was planning on going to Jeonju. It’s where I am from. I was born and raised in Seoul, mind you. But my family is from there. We have this lakeside house where we stay when we go there. So I was planning to stay there until Christmas was over so I could head back to Thailand when its time”

“Would you have avoided arranged marriage that way?” I asked him.

He sighed. “No. I guess not. But at least I would have avoided the dinner date with my possible future wife tomorrow...the wife I had never known in my life”

I felt a thick knot forming in my throat, an unfamiliar emotion; and I found myself staring at him. They say when the same thing happened quite so many times, it was no longer a coincidence. I was not sure if the same notion applied in this context; or whether even what was happening even remotely the same. But there was something enchanting about it, this entire ordeal, from the moment this night started with the two of us meeting in a chance encounter to every time when our situations clashed. People say that sometimes our lives are mapped out before us, and that everything that happened did happen, simply because they were supposed to. Fate. I knew that it was a superficial manner of interpreting things. Perhaps it was merely a series of coincidences. But tonight, on this strange, cold Christmas eve; everything just felt magically real.

“Same” I followed his strange manner of revealing things, and that rendered him speechless. He widened his eyes. “No way” He said.

“I have a Christmas dinner with my prospective husband as well” I admitted. “Not a dinner, per se. A party of a sort...”

“Oh...” Sung Gyu nodded his head, and he fell quiet at that. The way he appeared almost crestfallen made my heart do funny things to me. “This is silly, but I almost thought...” He said.

“S-so we both haven’t...” I muttered and trailed away, the knot in my throat made it almost too difficult to breathe.

“...haven’t seen them” He finished it for me.

I swallowed. “...Yeah”

“...Yeah” He nodded, and we both fell quiet, unable to take on the conversation from there. We didn’t want to make speculations, admit the things that we already assumed. It would be painful to learn in the end that all we’ve believed wasn’t true. The quiet moment saved us a heartbreak. A mere coincidence from a magical night. There was only so much that could be true.

We have already finished the meals, the two Soju bottles lied empty of the table beside us. Sung Gyu was quiet, mindlessly tampering with the glass in his hands as I listened to the church chimes. It was almost Christmas, almost. In another couple of minutes, my parents would return home and probably find me missing. They’d go berserk. They’d start ringing me frantically, and I already had no choice but return to the life that I’d always had.

A magical night would come to an end just like that and this strangely enigmatic man that I met would be nothing but a fragment of a beautiful memory in my mind. At that thought, the stiff knot forming in my throat grew stronger. I wished there was a way. I wished I could just disappear from my world completely, absorb myself in this moment, this tiny bubble of a universe a complete stranger had created for me.

A while later, a loud commotion erupted from the other end of the tent, cutting into the quietness between us, and Sung Gyu quickly reacted by climbing up on his feet. I turned to the direction of the commotion, only to see that the fellow patrons of the roadside eatery were all gathered around in a circle, blocking our sight to something appeared to be some sort of an argument, only except that there was a woman screaming, and someone was coughing so hard, almost as if-,

“Hold on” Said Sung Gyu, pressed a hand on my arm, indicating me to stay put and approached the circle in a careful stride. The circle parted, making way for him, and I could vaguely see a few people moving about. Sung Gyu then soon hurried away from them and came to me, almost in a run.

“Eunji-Ssi” He called me, graveness engraved in his eyes. “You’re a trained nurse, right? Come on”

And before even I could utter a word in response, he reached out to take my hand and then dragged me towards the commotion.

As it happened, there was a young mand, extremely drunk and choking. He was choking so badly that his airways were seemingly blocked; he was beginning to turn blue and what this older woman was attempting to do clear his airways was making the situation even worse. She was attempting to shove her hand down his throat.

“Wait!” I exclaimed, unable to watch as his chances of survival declined to a minimal. People took chocking so lightly that they never realised how fatal it could be. Although not a very common cause of death among young adults, the prospects were still high. The young man was beginning to lose his consciousness. His chances were getting slim. Without wasting another second, I jumped into action.

Following the emergency procedure that I’ve been trained with, I put my arms around the young man’s waist and pressed my fist against his abdomen, grasping onto it with my other hand and tried to perform the Heimlich Manoeuvre. The man was still conscious, fortunately, but he was soon losing his ability to breath. Tried as I might, I was still physically too small to perform the thrust on him, I was quickly losing my grip. It thrusted into his abdomen, blew hard on his back, but I simply wasn’t strong enough. I was slowly losing my grip; and if I did, we would lose the chances of saving him.

“Sung Gyu-Ssi” I gasped at the other as I lost my grip on the man. He quickly approached me, and I didn’t have to put it into words as he soon understood my predicament. He took over my place behind the chocking man and I explained to him the procedure. Five thrusts, five blows, five thrusts again. And Sung Gyu didn’t give up on trying.

“Call an ambulance” I told the woman as Sung Gyu continued the procedure, then all of a sudden, a throaty sound erupted from the man, along with a series of painful coughs. I quickly approached him and carefully reached into his opened mouth.

“Alright?” Sung Gyu grunted, his strong arms still grasping the man. I was quiet as I slowly swept my two fingers in his mouth. Nothing.

“Thrust again. Its almost there” I told Sung Gyu, and he followed. The man started to cough and started to gag. “Blow on his back” I instructed again, and at the second blow, the man gagged even harder. I swept in his mouth, and my fingers were soon met with what he’d chocked on, assumingly half chewed food. I retrieved it from his mouth, and he heaved, releasing it all onto the grass underneath.

It took a moment before the man returned to himself, during which we all watched him; expectant and horrified. The adrenaline rush that I previously had in me was slowly dissipating, replacing it with something that I couldn’t quite put my hands on. I just stood there, trembling and weak after all I did, watching him as Sung Gyu slowly lowered the man onto the ground. The small crowd who had gathered was watching the three of us expectantly, the heroes and the victim, the rescue coming to an end.

Soon after he was laid down, he slowly regained his consciousness. I was afraid that he might even require CPR, which he thankfully didn’t. His breathing was beginning to return to normal, and colour returned to his face. I kneeled down and checked on his vitals. His breathing was fine, heart beat a little higher than normal. Intoxicated, but otherwise okay. I watched him for a moment as life seeped back into him, and from behind me, the buzz of voices seeped into my ears. Sung Gyu was right before he, watching me in this bewildered wonderment, but disbelieving in a way. It took me a while before the realisation hit me.

We just saved someone’s life.

It’s been only a couple of months since I received my license and there was only so much that I could do as a nurse. I wasn’t in the emergency unit, there weren’t many lives that I was saving. Except for checking vitals, changing IV tubes and delivering the daily medicine dosages, I haven’t done anything much in my nursing life, it was almost becoming dull. And most importantly, never had I saved anyone’s life.

And this thought simply overwhelmed me.

Even as the ambulance arrived and took the man away, I was quite bewildered. My thoughts were all over the place, unfocused. The adrenaline drive was gone; and instead, I was absolutely horrified. The Heimlich Manoeuvre wasn’t that complicated of a procedure, but even that could have gone terribly wrong. I was trained, but that didn’t mean I was good enough to perform them in an emergency situation. That was brave of me to take up charge in that situation; but what if we went wrong? What if we, instead of saving a life, ended up.... oh god.

I clutched the nearby chair and fell into it. Tonight, was too much already. My head was spinning.

In front of me, Sung Gyu was taking care of the entire ambulance process. He explained everything that happened, and I heard him explain to the others a couple of times; “My friend is a Trained Nurse” I caught a tinge of pride in his voice, although I still doubt that it was it. Was it fair for him to give so much of credit to me? I wasn’t strong enough to perform the manoeuvre. I could have ended up killing him. Thank god Sung Gyu took over, otherwise I couldn’t imagine what it all could have been.

Then for a moment, I thought about what my mother told me as my eyes followed Sung Gyu’s lean, dark figure. He was quite so handsome, even more than I previously noted. And what made him so...attractive was the way he carried himself. He walked leaving all his weight to the ground, a walk of absolute confidence, and he spoke with such wit and eloquence, I could listen to him talk every day. And he wasn’t like all the men that I have met in my social circle. He didn’t take control. He was just in the same level as me. He didn’t wait for me to pour him the first glass. He would pour it for me. He had this way of looking at me that made my heart stop in its constricted cage, and he looked into my eyes when he spoke, when he listened, and whenever he pleased. All I could see in his own was honesty, concern and sometimes something more that I could hardly put into words.

‘I want us to be in love’ his voice echoed in my head. And a strange thought occurred in my mind. What if, what if this was my story? What if this was me writing it? And then what if.... what if this complete stranger who stayed beside me in an unlikely moment was here to sweep me off my feet?

The thought made me feel even more overwhelmed. My thoughts were all muddled up, the vague memories if the rescue returned to me, and I clutched onto the back of the chair even harder.

“You okay?” Came a voice, a familiar voice floating into my thoughts, and there was Sung Gyu standing before me, his shirt crumpled, and hair messed up, but still undeniably beautiful. His concerned eyes fell into mine, and something just snapped inside me.

“Eunji-Ssi...hey” He muttered, taking a step towards me. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, I wasn’t sure what made him appear so concerned. It took me a second to realise that I had tears pouring down my eyes. I sobbed, once, twice, and covered my face with my hands.

“Hey...ssh, don’t cry...you just saved his life” He muttered to me, and at the mention of saving a life, I cried even harder. Why did I deserve all that credit? It was just sheer luck. I could have killed him too.

“Come on, don’t cry. You did really great” he murmured, peeling my hands off my face. I put them down and raised my head to see the close proximity of our faces. I saw him closer than we ever were, the shine of the florescent light above fell into his eyes and made them appear very, very brown. They were the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.

“I...I have never done that before” I croaked out wearily. “And I... I thought...”

“But you did it...you saved him” He said, smiling up at me. He was crouched down on the grass before me, his smile so brilliant, him so close to me. I was overwhelmed. “There is always that first time...”

“B-but...” I started and let out a sob. “I could have...” Another cry broke out from me, and I covered my face. But then, before even I could realise what was happening, “Come here” came Sung Gyu’s voice to me, almost too close, and soon he had me enfolded in his warm embrace. I closed my eyes, my heart just about bursting inside me. He smelled sweet and citrusy, a little boozy and expensive. His shirt crumpled under my hand, the soft material of the cardigan he wore over it graced my cheek where it rested on his shoulder. His hand patted me gently on my back, and I could hear his voice reverberating. “There, there...you’d be fine...”

For a moment, my world stood still. All I was aware was him; Sung Gyu. His arms around me, his sweet musky scent in my lungs, his voice in my ears, just him all over me. I thought about the words he said, the events that led us to this point. I thought about our stories which undeniably collided together. I thought about my story, which never seemed to write itself.

And then I thought...perhaps, Kim Sung Gyu was my story. This was our story. He was here to sweep me off my feet, carry me into a universe which was all and all mine.

❄


	3. Chapter 3

“So, what do you want to do?” Sung Gyu asked me, his voice quiet over the still loud mingle of the street. We have walked ourselves back into the urban part of the city, back in our thick coats, among the Christmas crowd, an odd pair with clothe bags in our hands. It was cold out, and somewhere past midnight; the mass was perhaps already over now, and I thought of my parents who were probably searching for me. I had my phone turned off and buried in my pocket. I tried to think about nothing else but the small bubble we were in. This moment, this point of time in my life, nothing more.

“I don’t know, really” I shrugged. “I just don’t want to go home yet”

Sung Gyu nodded, narrowed his eyes and stared ahead thoughtfully. “Is it Christmas yet?”

I looked down at my watch. It was way past midnight, and most certainly the chimes of the churches nearby had since long ceased. “Oh, we’re past Christmas”

“Christmas ain’t not over until the day is over” Sung Gyu grinned and he stopped in the middle of the street. I followed, and thankfully there weren’t many people in the sidewalk at this time of the day. He looked down at me, I held my breath as he smiled.

“Merry Christmas, Eunji-Ssi” He said.

“Oh! Merry Christmas to you too” I giggled giddily, and he laughed in response. His laughter made my heart warm, a jovial, refreshing sound echoing in my ears.

We walked on for a moment, the streets almost empty and quiet, most stores closed for the holiday night. A few Gangnam street night clubs were open, an occasional patron in their thick coats and musky scents passing by. All during the walk I was acutely aware of Sung Gyu beside me, quietly observing the surrounding, mind far away. We walked on for a moment, and as we came to a four-way junction, he halted.

“Let’s do this” He said to me all of a sudden, and I narrowed my eyes as I looked in the direction that he did. It was the glimmering neon sign of a convenience store, deserted save for the drooping young cashier, idly sitting in the front on his own.

“Let’s do what?” I asked.

“Show, not tell” He smiled, and before I could protest, he grabbed my hand and dragged me off to the store.

Having been raised in a luxurious household which never really had any convenient needs, I have been to convenience stores only a handful of times in my life. It was so empty in the night, almost ghostly. There was the lowly sound of a radio playing old Christmas songs, and the young cashier was deeply engrossed in his phone, glancing up to only look bleakly at the new shop-comers and returned to his phone. As it was quiet, even our footsteps made a sound loud enough to make an echo inside. Sung Gyu walked slowly, so did I. He picked up a shopping basket and proceeded to toss in a couple of cans of beer and chips into it, wincing every time as the foil packets made a loud crackle whenever he touched them.

“What are we doing?” I whispered at him, not understanding anything from his show-not-tell.

“Christmas shopping” he whispered back, inspected the back of a packet of marshmallows, winced at the sound of the polytene crackling and tossed it back onto the rack.

“Well, if you are expecting any Christmas presents from me, sadly I have only myself to present to you...I’ve been robbed” I informed him in a sharp whisper, following him in small steps as he slid his way towards Christmas decorations. He looked over at me, looked me up and down and raised his brows. “Not half as bad, I’ll take it” He said. I stifled a snort and punched him on his arm. He started to laugh himself, and suddenly it was all loud and lively inside the store, my heart becoming warmer and garnering the attention of the cashier who narrowed his eyes at us suspiciously.

“Oh look, these are nice” Sung Gyu gestured at the Christmas decorations on sale. On the top shelf were Christmas accessories; masks and head bands, a sort of an ugly Rudolf nose, glittery Santa hats, Santa beards, and elf hats with tiny led lights attached to its hem. As Sung Gyu reached for a Rudolf headband, the little tinsels on the antlers made a soft tinkling sound. He placed it on his head and his eyes crossed when he tried to inspect himself, then he tilted his head side to side. I couldn’t hold back my laughter; at the way his eyes stayed crossed, the way his hair fell to his eyes. He was adorable, and I was laughing so hard that I almost chocked.

He then reached to the top shelf and picked up a Santa hat. With the hat held carefully in his hands, he leaned over to me, so close to my face, and I saw his eyes bearing into mine; so, so brown, his irises carrying a soft golden light. They were like an entirely new universe combined. And I held my breath.

“Here’s for your best Christmas ever, Jung Eunji” He muttered, and slowly eased the Santa hat on my head. He pulled it down too far that it covered my eyes. When he noticed that I couldn’t see anything, he spluttered out with a laughter. I joined him, it was hard not to. And then for a moment we were both laughing, occasionally dragging a sharp breath. And it must have been when the cashier served us with his curious gaze; from under my hat I could see Sung Gyu pressing a finger on his lips and go “Ssh!”

But that didn’t stop either of us from laughing.

As the laughter died down, I raised my head, and Sun Gyu proceeded to fix the hat on me. He lifted it so my eyes were out, and then his eyes were on mine, warm and beautiful, bearing into mine for the longest time. I felt warm inside, a prickling sensation coursing right through me, taking me into a place entirely of our own. His gaze was doing things to me; his smile, his words, his warmth. Just him. I had met plenty of men myself, but nobody has ever, ever made me feel this way. He cracked open my heart, eased himself in and turned my entire world upside down. He swept me off my feet. He wrote my story in a way that nobody else in my life ever did.

His fingers slowly reached my face, and as I held my breath, he fixed my bangs underneath the hat, put them in place and tilted the hat to a side. My heart hammered so hard, bouncing off my ribcage frantically, and I began to feel light in my head. Perhaps this was the alcohol finally kicking in. Perhaps this was just the magical night taking its different turns of making it more and even more memorable. It was strange, really. A strange, strange thought. But I felt...I felt as if I had fallen unconditionally and undeniably in love.

He tilted his head to a side and inspected his working on me, and then he smiled, nodding approvingly. “That’s better” He said and reached for my hand. “Come on, time to pay”

The cashier glowered at us as if we were a pair of lunatics. It was quite a funny affair, honestly. We were both serious and quiet as he rung off our things. Sung Gyu took off his head band, I took of my hat, but as soon as they were rung, Sung Gyu picked them up, ripped off the price tags and put them back on our heads. The cashier boy looked at us from our heads to our feet. I suppose he concluded that we were a pair of drunk Hobos and would most probably wonder if he should ring the police once we’re gone.

Much to the cashier boy’s chagrin, perhaps; we didn’t really leave. We settled down in the plastic chairs outside the store and breathed in the cold air which kissed our warm skin with a prickle. Sung Gyu set down the bags on a table, pulled out a chair and I followed the same. Then he pulled out two cans of beer, cracked them open and handed one over to me. For a moment, we were both quiet, save for the sound of Sung Gyu’s antler headbands tinkling. Sometimes I laughed when I heard that and Sung Gyu giggled too. Soon we fell into a moment of comfortable silence. We were both engrossed in our thoughts, the kind of a silence that we both needed in a long, eventful night.

“I’m sorry...for being an asshole before” Sung Gyu’s voice cut into the quiet all of a sudden, and when I looked at him, he glanced back; the Antlers tinkled, and regardless of how serious the moment was, I sputtered out with laughter.

“What?” He raised his brows and tilted his head, intentionally making the antlers do the sound again, appearing completely oblivious.

“Nothing” I wheezed and urged him to carry on. Which he did.

“Well, I didn’t mean to be an asshole. You know, I guess, with the whole running away thing, I was just a bit agitated”

“No problem” I replied honestly, my eyes down casted as I did. “It was understandable...” I thought about it for a moment and added. “I’m sorry too...because of me you couldn’t...do as you planned”

He shrugged. “This is much better I guess”

Although the sense of his words wasn’t much, I felt my heart doing somersaults. I knew it was, yet again, superfluous of me to think that I made his night any better. If anything, it was him who did for me. He was the quirky, funny one, he was the one with exquisite stories and so much to tell; he was the life of the pair of us who kept the dull night alive, he was the hero, while I was just there, hanging onto him like a leach striving on the ample of energy that he had. I wasn’t sure how I was making anything better for him. But I didn’t dare to question, lest it ruined the moment.

“I did think you were an asshole though” I admitted in order to take the conversation in a different direction.

“You did?” He looked at me and laughed. “I kind of knew you would, I thought you were a stuck-up”

“That’s alright” I grinned. “I thought you were a proud, entitled asshole”

I thought he would take offense in this but Sung Gyu was too light hearted to take offense in anything. He just laughed, his shoulders jostling, the antlers continued to make the tinkle making it all the more funnier. “That’s fair, even I would have thought so too if I were you”

“Oh yeah?” I wheezed.

“I sure did act like one”

“I also thought you were a busy person heading somewhere important, but then I saw you playing games on the phone”

He raised his brows. “Oh just because I was playing games doesn’t make it any less important”

I looked up at him, saw him glowering mockingly with the antlers on his head, and I laughed even more. I didn’t think I had laughed so much in my life before. I didn’t think anyone had made me laugh so much. Perhaps it was my alcohol kicking in. Perhaps it was just the effects of a magical night.

Once the laughter died down, however, I asked him, what suddenly appeared in my mind.

“Sung Gyu-Ssi” I called him.

“Hm?”

“Why didn’t you just leave me there? Why did you stay?”

He glanced over at me for a second. “That’s a good question”

I shrugged. “Honestly”

Sung Gyu pursed his lips. “If I knew, I would have told you”

I thought about it for a moment, the response, and then recalled back to that moment. The driver’s words happened to echo in my mind. It had happened only a couple of hours ago, but it suddenly felt so far away.

“Was it because of what the driver said?”

“Hm? About what?” He perked up.

“You know” I shrunk into my coat. “About leaving me behind and... stuff”

He went quiet, perhaps recalling that moment, and stared ahead. “Not really” He said in the end. “I guess...I guess it was because of the purse thing...you know, leaving someone in need is against my social responsibility” He shrugged. “And you know, you kind of collapsed”

I blushed at the memory, the panicked and frantic me collapsing at the thought of having no money for the rest of my journey, Sung Gyu grabbing hold of me and me acting like an absolute damsel in distress. Sung Gyu was, from that moment on, my prince in shining armour. Although only a few hours had passed since then, I felt like so much had happened between that time and now; two complete strangers who despised each other were now sitting together in a time when everyone else were asleep, sitting in old plastic chairs of a desolate convenience store, sipping beer in Christmas hats. When I walked out of my house that night, never had I thought that it would take this turn.

I suppose what they say is true; sometimes an unfortunate event could come as a blessing.

“What are you thinking?” Sung Gyu’s voice floated into my mind once again, and I glanced up to see him gazing at me; that disarming gaze which melted everything inside me. His smile was gentle, and bright in his eyes. He seemed to be getting more and more beautiful every time I looked at him, if that was even possible.

I shook my head and looked away.

“I think it was after you told me the truth” Sung Gyu started, suddenly, and the antlers tinkled when he turned away. “You don’t meet many grown ups who run away every day. And when you told me I just really connected”

I swallowed and decided to avert the conversation again. For some reason, I was afraid to hear more. There was a spark between us, there was no doubt about that; and it was what which scared me, pursuing this strange, surreal connection that we’ve formed between each other just over a couple of hours. It just felt...fragile to me, and I was afraid I’d break it if I step towards it even further.

“Oh, so it wasn’t because I collapsed” I pointed out to him.

He chuckled. “I can’t be someone who leaves a collapsed person either”

I nodded and hummed, he nodded too. And then we fell quiet again. I thought about us, everything between us, and it gave me an indescribable amount of pain that I didn’t think anymore. In a couple of hours, morning will arrive, and I had no choice but to return home. Sung Gyu and I would part ways, and I would return to my old life. This little bubble of a universe that we created would soon evaporate, only fragments of it will remain as memories in our hearts. Sung Gyu would go away, soon return to Thailand, perhaps, and this would be probably the last time we would ever meet. I would live with this heartbreak for the rest of my life.

“You know what Eunji-Ssi?” Sung Gyu called after a moment and I hummed as I glanced at him. “I know you’re thinking...about things. So, we’ll do this”

“Do what?” I raised my brows.

“Pretend to be somebody else”

I looked over at his antlers and snorted out a laughter. He laughed in return, making that sound with the antlers again, and it took us a moment to settle down.

“No, what I mean is, let’s not be us...you know. Let’s be different people tonight, so our stories will be different”

Stories. My heart picked up. Why? I wanted to ask him. What benefit would we have in doing that? But then I almost knew the answer when I thought about it. Almost. And when I looked into his eyes, I could see it floating inside them like a silent prayer. So our stories would be different, so our destinations weren’t apart. So, we won’t end up being memories in the end.

“Right” I sighed and looked over at him. “So, Sung Gyu-Ssi, if you weren’t a ‘A lawyer who doesn’t go to court’ what would you be?”

“Hm, me?” He said, his voice going up an octave, and stared up at the starless sky thoughtfully. Then a mischievous smile spread on his lips. “A stripper” He said.

“Not bad” I spluttered out laughing. “Although it will be difficult with that face”

“What’s wrong with my face?” He asked in mock offense, and I laughed in response.

“Nothing...nothing” I muttered, wheezing. After my laughter died down, however, Sung Gyu had returned to being all grave and solemn. He looked ahead and sighed. “I’d be a comic strip artist”

“A comic strip artist?” I reiterated.

“Hm” He nodded, appearing slightly crestfallen, and when I remained quiet, he looked over at me and smiled. “When I was a kid, I used to be obsessed with comics, especially the one which you get in the newspapers, the funny comic strips; even the political ones. I used to have a scrap book and collect them, and I always wanted to draw comic strips for newspapers, but all I could do was draw them in my note books...” He sighed again. And there was something magical about his eyes as he talked; the way they sparkled, the way he appeared distant and happy, engrossed in memories that he sincerely cherished. There was something about him when he talked about the things he loved...and I thought it was beautiful.

“So...what happened?” I asked him, he looked over at me and smiled sadly. “I went to law school”

I nodded, and for a moment I couldn’t say a word. I suppose what my mother said was the truth. Everyone we met had their own story. I thought she was always talking about love. Perhaps it was too; a love towards something that he always wanted to be.

“Tonight, Sung Gyu-Ssi, you’re a comic strip artist” I informed him.

“Aw, I thought we were going with stripper”

I rolled my eyes. “Draw me something”

“You mean, like, a comic strip?” He raised his brows.

“Something like that.” I shrugged. “You know the best”

He was quiet for a moment, contemplating it, then he smiled. “I actually like that...do you have a pen?”

“Not on me”

Sung Gyu glanced back at the store where the cashier boy was yet again, waiting idly for possible late nightly customers, and looked back at me. “Hold on a moment” He said, and he climbed up on his feet. He took long strides back to the store and bowed apologetically at the cashier boy. As I watched him cautiously, Sung Gyu disappeared behind the aisles. A couple of minutes later he hurriedly emerged, approached the cashier and rung off his things. Then he quickly made his way out of the store towards me, a thin permanent marker in his hand, and no paper.

“Paper?” I raised my brows. He paused and threw his head back, closing his eyes. “Shit”

We both glanced at the store and saw that the boy had disappeared from the counter. We were quiet as we waited for him to return, which he didn’t, and Sung Gyu ran a hand down his face. “Sorry about that”

I wondered if I had any stray paper on me, Sung Gyu tried to work on the bill from our previous purchase which was smudged with dew. Then I looked down at my arm; an idea. I pushed back my coat sleeve, undid the sleeve button of my blouse and exposed my pale arm to the winter cold.

“Here. Draw on my arm”

Sung Gyu looked at me warily. “But this is permanent ink” He said.

“That’s the whole point”

He stared at my pale arm for a moment and then smiled. “Ah, now I get it”

“What?”

“You’re whiter than a sheet”

I mock glowered at him. “Oh, just draw”

He didn’t launch at it straight away. He moved his chair closer to me, and daintily took hold of my arm. His fingertips were soft and cold against mine, almost ticklish, and he was so close to me that I could almost breath in his intoxicating citrusy scent. He worked slowly, as if anything he would do could break my skin. The tip of the felt pen was cold on my arm, and as he concentrated on my skin, I watched the black ink forming wonderful patterns. He drew a small figure; a man with a chubby face, hair pushed up, in a coat too long and just tiny slits for eyes. I immediately recognised him as himself, and that made me smile.

“Is that you?” I asked him slowly, and he nodded his head. As he did, his hair grazed my cheek. I could see it up close; dark and messy, a tinge of brown in odd places. I wondered how it must be like to run my fingers through it.

“I’m drawing the two of us” He explained as he continued, his voice slightly muffled. “When we first met” He glanced up at me, and then he smiled. Seeing it up close made my heart stop instantly; just how beautiful and enchanting he was. “I thought it was a memory you’d want to keep in permanent ink”

“Yes, especially when you were being a big asshole” I replied, and he chuckled before he went back to his work.

“While we’re at this, Eunji-Ssi” He started after a while and glanced up at me for the briefest moment. “If you weren’t a nurse who saved occasional chocking drunkards, what would you have been?”

Truthfully, while we were in the topic, I had wondered it myself. I wondered what I would have wanted to be. I never really had a choice, to be honest. All the decisions in my life were up to my parents, from the day I was born and brought into their arms. I hadn’t the liberty to chose for myself, not even the path I wanted to pursue or people I wanted to love. They said that love and passion was a choice; but that wasn’t so for me. They always pushed and pulled me around, a puppet on a string. They wanted me to get into the best college, the profession that they deemed suited me, and marry the person who benefitted them more. Having lived a life which was not my own, I had never really thought of what I would have wanted to be. Sung Gyu had a passion; I could see it in his eyes. He was a deeply passionate and determined person, who strived to achieve what he desired over what the rest of the world wanted him to be. Perhaps he’d had a few hurdles, I couldn’t tell by how much I already knew about him, which was just an iota of everything that he was. But that wasn’t me. That couldn’t be me. I didn’t have anything that I wanted to be; all I had was everything that I was supposed to be.

But then I thought about my mum again, about the person that she had created, which was me. She had planted that small childish desire in me, that love to listen to a beautiful story every night as a child, that obsession to create stories of others, that craze to write a story of my own. Slowly then, it dawned on me. Perhaps I always wanted to be a story teller myself. Perhaps all I ever wanted was to create my own universe, my own story, the story of what I could have been, would want to be. It took me this so long to understand that my truest passion was this. Stories.

“I like stories” I told him without thinking any further, and noticed how he halted for a moment, the tip of the felt pen hovering over the unfinished picture on my skin. He glanced at me and smiled. “A writer, then?”

I thought about it for a moment, and I shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I’ve never really thought about what I wanted to be. I just knew what I am ought to be, that’s all”

“Childhood ambition?” He glanced at me.

“Never had any” I shook my head. “I had a pretty dull childhood....” trailed off, my mind recalling my younger days, my teen years working my days away, striving to be the best in my parents’ eyes; nothing more. Now that I thought about it, its quite sad, really. I haven’t had a life. “...well, my entire life’s been dull, to be honest. Never had the liberty of choice”

“Not dull” Sung Gyu said distractedly, again working on the comic strip. I tried not to think about the feel of his fingers on my skin lest I lost my good reasoning. He was now drawing a girl with lousy bangs and huge doe eyes. I was pretty sure that my eyes didn’t look anything like them. But that was me. He glanced at me for a second and smiled. “Not dull, Eunji-Ssi, it just lacked a bit of colour”

“How would you know?” I asked for the lack of better things to say, and he grinned. “I just do”

I tried to hide my blush as I looked away, but I was pretty sure he could feel just how hard my heart was hammering inside me. Sung gyu kept doing things to me, things I had never felt before. With his words, with his smile. I was beginning to a see a side of me that I had never known to exist.

“So you said you liked stories” Sung Gyu said, filling the silence between us. “What kind of stories do you like? Erotica?”

I spluttered and shook my head. “Of people. To be honest, when I meet people, I try to think of their stories...I try to create them sometimes. I don’t get them right, of course”

Having finished the figure of the girl, he gazed at me for a moment too long, and I died inside a little. “That’s nice...” He smiled. He placed the tip of the pen on me again, and I clenched my fist as it tickled. “Did you try to create my story?”

I recalled what my first impression of him was and glanced down at his hand. He was drawing carefully, paying attention to even the simplest details. There was a story being created on my warm, pale skin; the story of us. I gazed at the way his hands worked, quick and precise, not a single stroke amiss. I had initially thought he was an artist, a story teller too. And I was right.

“I thought you were an artist...and perhaps even a novelist”

He raised his brows and looked up at me. “You saw right through me”

“I got it wrong” I shrugged. “You were a lawyer who didn’t go to court that whole time”

At this, he chuckled softly which died as soon as it came. “You saw what I wanted to be, at least” He said to me, not meeting my eyes. “Besides, lawyer who doesn’t go to court doesn’t exactly pass as a good story, does it?”

“I guess not” I pursed my lips.

“You know sometimes people want the others to see what they actually are...” Sung Gyu went on distractedly as he concentrated on the comic strip. “It’s a comfort when people see what they want to be...”

“I just assumed you were an artist” I muttered.

“That’s what I am, now, ain’t I?” He said and met my eyes. Then, for that one moment, we were in sort of a parallel universe, him holding my eyes, his on my arm, and me deeply lost in the world he was creating for me. He was an artist, and I saw him through. But the question was, just how much could he see me through? Did he even see me beyond the layers that my parents had laid upon me Was there even an actual person beyond them? Was there even anything to see? To love? What if there was nothing; just the dull old me, the puppet on strings, and that was the entire reason why I never seemed to have a story of my own.

“Despite what you’re saying, Jung Eunji, I think you’re one remarkably beautiful woman” he said then, and I felt my heart stop for a moment. He looked away. “Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise” He continued, and he returned to his drawing as though he hadn’t said anything that would affect me captivatingly. “It could be that your parents have created you entirely. But still there is you, the real you somewhere underneath it all’ He glanced at me briefly then, and he smiled. “When you really let your guards down, the real you comes out. You’re smart, funny, beautiful...you’re you”

For a moment, I was rendered speechless. For the years of myself meeting people of all sorts, not one had ever said anything more...beautiful. I have heard people appreciating me enough times. I knew I was attractive in physical attributes, men especially liked it that I was involved in an occupation which left me powerless in their hands. They loved that I was raised this way, to be easily pushed and pulled around so that they could take control. But not once ever in my life had I met anyone who even attempted to see right through me.

Then Kim Sung Gyu did just that.

Suddenly I was acutely aware of his presence beside me to every fibre of his being. I felt his touch to be magnetic, the sensation coursing through me right down to the core. His words reverberated in my ears, thoughts of him filled my mind. I concentrated on the way his fingers moved gently across my skin and wondered how they would feel on every other part of me. I realised, with a pang, that I desired him. I desired him in a way that I had never desired anyone ever before.

“So” He broke into the quietness, and I noticed that now he was working on the background details; a car, trees and buildings in the back. As he continued, he asked me; “How did it come about? Stories, I mean”

It took a moment for me to absorb his words. “Oh...um, when I was young, my mum used to tell me stories every night. And I loved it. She told me once that everyone in this world had their own story, and since then, every time I see or meet a stranger, I try to work out their story”

“Fascinating” Sung Gyu grinned. “So there you are...you like to make stories”

I went quiet at that, my mind engrossed in recalling all the stories I knew. The reason why I truly developed this obsession was because I always strived to have my own. I didn’t own anything I had, not even my life, not even my choices, my rights. Perhaps this was the reason why I at least wanted to have my own love story, a small tale of secret romance, like my mother’s chance encounter. I looked down at Sung Gyu’s head lowered as he worked on the script, and my heart picked up at the superficial prospects of a different story. I knew it was wishful thinking. Perhaps it was just me, perhaps it was just how I felt and interpreted it all. But Sung Gyu and I, right here, right now, were a story of our own.

“I wanted to write my own story” I said to Sung Gyu before even I could stop myself. “Not like novelists or anything. Just...” I sighed, and he straightened up, my arm still in his hand. “Well, my mum; she always tells me about how she met my dad in a Karaoke bar and they...they fell in love...ever since I heard it, I’ve wanted to have one of my own...”

I felt blood descending to my face, and I wanted to disappear, melt away. But instead, I was sitting there, completely transparent to the man who now held my heart.

“So, write it, Eunji-Ssi” Sung Gyu told me, softly, quietly, and I found myself gazing at him. He stared back, his eyes fixated on mine, and my heart began to hammer so fast inside me. “Tonight, you’re a story teller, and nothing is stopping you”

He returned to the comic strip then, and I saw him writing something in a corner of the drawing. He let the pen hover above my skin for a moment, the quietness so loud for that one moment between us. Finally, he pulled away and sat up straight. “Done”

I smiled at him weakly, and my eyes ran over the comic strip decorating my pale skin. There was him, the tiny man with chubby cheeks and slits for eyes, and then there was me, long hair and messy bangs, starry doe eyes which looked nothing like mine. We were staring at each other, and there was a taxi parked behind us, a seemingly old man sticking his head out the shutter. There was a vague sketch of the city behind us, street lights and Christmas decorations; the road stretching behind us. Somewhere on the top, what appeared to be the sky, were dots as stars. It was when I looked closely that I realised it; there was a tiny line of hearts above the drawings of us, and on the corner, he’d written in terribly unreadable writing; “Our Story”

“Oh...” I gasped, holding my breath. They said that love came to you in the strangest ways. That fate had funny ways of making things work out for you. I didn’t look at Sung Gyu. I didn’t have the sheer capacity to, but I was aware of his gaze, fixated solely on me, expectant and awaiting my response.

“Well?” He asked softly. I glanced at him just for a second and set my eyes on the fine details on my arm. I felt him move, just a slightest, subtle movement; and then we were close, so close. Would I turn to face him, I would be just an inch apart from him, and I would not be able to hold myself back. I would want to take my chances and kiss him.

“It’s...nice, honestly” I muttered in response.

“Do you like it?”

I nodded.

Silence. And-,

“Jung Eunji”

“Hm?”

“Look at me”

I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply, and slowly turned my eyes towards him. He was gazing down at me; warm and enchanting. That brown not so prominent in the dimness of the streetlight but still, so much alive. He smiled that exact same smile, the one that’s tugged the strings of my heart from the moment we met and continued to watch me; expectant and quiet.

“Tonight, let’s write our own story” He said.

 

A few minutes later, we were back on the street. We walked on without direction or a destination in mind. Our hands brushed past each other but none of us was brave enough to grab hold of the other. Sung Gyu had both our bags in one hand, and though I’ve battled to have mine to myself, he persisted. Instead, I had a small grocery bag laden of the things we’ve bought along with the Christmas hats. As we walked, we tried to tell other people’s stories. The grumpy old man who sat outside a store had his family abandoning him and now lived with a small, loyal dog. That particular girl who emerged from an underground store of some sort which provided the kind of deals that we didn’t aspire to take, was trying to make her ends meet and afford college education so she could have a better life. We created super heroes, real life super heroes, the ordinary people who struggled every day of their lives. But still we didn’t talk about our own story. We were afraid to, as it still remained vibrant and quiet in the back of our minds.

“He has a wife and three children at home” Sung Gyu muttered in my ear, his hot breath fanning against my skin, as we passed a lonely old security guard of a hotel, idly watching as the world passed by. “I bet one of them is a high school girl” I added. “And she wants to be a singer when she grows up”

It was comforting, honestly, to be involved and invested in a different world than ours as it held us back from diving into qualms of our own. It’s been minutes since we left the convenience store after having watched it being closed down, the lights flickering off and the boy leaving his shift for the day. It was as if another chapter of this story was closed, paving path for another. It was Sung Gyu who suggested taking a walk, and I, having not much of a choice, simply agreed. It was again him who suggested we tried to work out people’s stories, and this we’d been exercising for the past couple of blocks we passed, religiously.

“What do you think of that girl” Sung Gyu asked, and he gestured at a twenty-four-hour coffee shop where a lone girl was sitting on the other side of the glass panel, a mug in her hand, deep in thought. Her eyes were distant, and there wasn’t much I could deem looking at her, except for that she was, perhaps, lost in the cross roads of her life.

“Student loans and exams” Sung Gyu muttered as we passed the coffee shop and moved ahead. “The kind of problems that we’ve never had...” A moment of quietness, and then he smiled, almost sadly. “It’s strange to think that we all have problems that others probably don’t”

“Problems that have solutions...sometimes” I added, almost mindlessly. For people who were struggling making the ends meet, covering up their daily expenses and students’ loans, perhaps, these problems weren’t the kind that actually had solutions. For Sung Gyu and me, however, we actually did. I had to escape my parents’ toxicity, Sung Gyu had to fall in love. It was just that easy; and yet here we were, running away from our lives as people with actual struggles strived to live the best way they could.

“Problems are difficult for their own” Sung Gyu muttered softly, staring ahead.

“Maybe it’s about how we all try to solve them” I told him in response. “Some of us try to run away”

Sung Gyu chuckled softly in response. “It’s funny to think that some foolish decisions have the best consequences”

“True” I sighed, thinking back to the night that we’ve had. We were nearing dawn, as the nights were shorter in the winter days, and our time together would soon come to an end. As heart-breaking as it was, we’ve established our connection already, and our parting wouldn’t mean that it would actually fade away. There were things that could work, and if our encounter truly was fated to happen in our lives, then it would last longer. All we had to do was try.

We walked on quietly for a moment, and then all of a sudden, Sung Gyu halted. So did I, and then I realised that Sung Gyu was staring up at the lamp post above us. I followed his gaze, and for a moment all I could see was tiny dusty specs floating in the golden light. And then soon, is started to descend in torrents; torrents and torrents of flakes of snow.

“Oh...” Sung Gyu muttered, held out his hand and watched as the snow descended onto his skin and faded away. “It’s snowing...”

“Didn’t hear that in the weather forecast” I laughed and tried to catch them in my hands myself.

“The question is...” Sung Gyu met my eyes. “Whether you even saw the weather forecast”

I laughed. “Course not, I was too busy planning to run away”

“Worked out pretty well, didn’t it?” He said softly, his eyes shining, a pair of beautiful crescent moons. I found myself lost in his gaze for a moment, he appeared to be lost in mine. There it was again, that imperceptible connection; effervescent, almost magical. Sung Gyu took a step towards me, still holding my gaze, and he lifted his hand before he slowly dusted the snow off my hair.

“Who would have thought?” I muttered thinking back to the moment we met, completely unplanned to fall in love towards the end. “Hm?” Sung Gyu looked into my eyes once more, and I shook my head, smiling. “They don’t say the important things in the weather forecast, do they?” He added after a while.

“Things like what?”

His hand which was on my hair slowly descended to my face. “Things like...meeting a girl like you...”

I bit my lip, staring straight into his eyes. “Maybe it wasn’t important enough”

He shook his head, his fingers moving downwards even further, tangling up in my hair and running through it. He had moved even closer, and the brown of his eyes was so eminent up close. He gazed at me warmly, quietly, and I tried to work out just what he was thinking. He was still so guarded, despite everything he had told me. I couldn’t see past that silvery sheen of his eyes, as though it was a little secret he was hiding, and I wished this little secret was exactly what I wanted it to be.

So I decided, bravely and boldly, to test my boundaries, work things out for myself. We were in the middle of the street. Although its still too early in the day, there were people, so many strangers, and I didn’t want us to be imprinted in their minds. So, I reached for Sung Gyu’s hair first, dusted the snow off him, and as more and more of it fell upon him like silvery fairy dust, I reached for his hand. “Come on” I told him and dragged him behind me as I took off in a run.

And then we were running. We were running and running, the cold wind against our faces, a force against the still falling snow. It stained our hair and shoulders, became slippery beneath of shoes; but still we were running, down and across the street without destination, laughing and mindless as his hand held warmly onto mine. Somehow, he had taken the lead of our escapade, him running before me. Soon we slowed down, and it gradually came to a halt. We’d stopped at a darkened alleyway, a lonely food stand at the very end of the road and dark, murky walls surrounding us; secluded from the rest of the world. A sole lamp post remained, flickering regularly and the snow still falling created a heavenly effect underneath its lights.

Sung Gyu and I stood there, panting and struggling to catch our breath. He was laughing, so was I. His eyes were fixated on me as if he couldn’t possibly look away. As we gathered our bearings, it was clear, what point of our little journey we had finally come to. The air between us had invariably shifted, and we didn’t appear to each other the same anymore. For me, he was the start and end of everything. I was aware of every big and tiny detail of him. I was aware of the way the brown edges of his irises melted into the white, the smallest smile donning his lips, the slightest specs of brown in his hair and the disarming gaze that he always, always held me captive in. I was aware of the way he never looked away from me, even as he made his way towards me, even as he dropped our bags somewhere by his feet and propelled me backwards without even laying a hand on me. I was expectant, gratified and captivated by the very sight of him. I stepped backwards until my back hit the brick wall behind me, the rough, cold surface grazing my skin. He halted just a step away from me; smiling the slightest, yet not saying a word. I stared into his eyes, he gazed into mine, an enigmatic moment. Slowly but surely, then, I lifted my hand, caught a handful of his shirt and pulled him down towards me. He followed my silent plea, his warm breath fanning against my skin, and soon he closed the gap between us. All that I saw before my eyes fluttered close was the pink and prominent shape of his lips, parted, and descending towards me.

Sung Gyu kissed me, then and there; sweet, long and beautiful. His lips were cold and moist against mine, prying them open and attempting to unveil everything that I held untold. He tasted sweet, a tinge of booze and certainty, his movements so sure and so precise. I gasped against him as he tugged my lower lip between his teeth, and he smiled upon my reaction, his eyes forming crescent moons. I closed my eyes even longer, granting him the permission as he desired. He soon pressed closer against me, and we continued.

It was the kind of a kiss where time stilled, monarchs fell, and continents drifted without even us noticing. His arm was pressed to the brick wall above my head as he stood towering me, the other on the curve of my waist, his fingers pressing onto my skin over the few layers between us, and I felt him to the very core of my being. My own hands ran up his chest, around his neck and tangled into the dark locks of his hair. He tilted his head to a side, ran his tongue past my lips and I breathed him in. The time was invariably stilled between us, and we were lost in a moment so long. By the time we finally pulled away from each other, the street light above us had flickered one dozen of times, the world was covered in a silvery white sheen of splendour. I stared into his eyes, a beautiful golden sunset in the depths of them, and my fingers unconsciously traced the shape of his lips. He was truly beautiful, Sung Gyu was. At the very sight of him, the feel of him pressed against me, his heart beating almost rhythmically along mine, I couldn’t hold back everything I felt towards him. It raised in multitudes, like a rising tide; the desire that I had for him, so strong. I closed my eyes as his lips brushed past mine once more.

“Let’s be reckless tonight” I whispered to him, my own words echoing in my mind. His eyes met mine enigmatically, and I breathed against his lips.

“Just how reckless do you want to be?” He asked me.

I looked up at him and caught a blazing fire in his eyes. He desired me, I could tell, just as much as I desired him. I smiled.

“Disgustingly, mind-bogglingly reckless...”

Sung Gyu smiled back, his lips moving against me, and I felt his hand warm on my neck.

“That can be arranged”

Then I hummed as he caught me in yet another whirlwind of a kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

We were out on the street again; this time with purpose and a destination. We weren’t running, we weren’t walking either. My mind was all over the place, my feet struggling to keep up with his pace as he pulled me along with him. The bags we’d previously dropped were back in his hands, and with his free one, he held mine. Life had drained from the city except for a few measly nightly roamers and bystanders, lost in their own worlds. As we walked, Sung Gyu muttered under his breath; “I swear I saw one somewhere, I swear I did...”

Though I wasn’t sure what, the warmth of his hand and the look in his eyes gave me a fair idea; the very thought of him made my skin prickle with desire. I thought of the taste of him, still unfading on my lips.

After a couple of minutes of fast walking, we finally came to a halt. I had expected something quite...different, but I suppose Sung Gyu wasn’t about to settle for just anything. We’ve arrived at a tall and lavish Gangnam hotel in the centre of the city, its high walls and dimmed golden lights offering us a quiet invitation. Sung Gyu’s hand tightened in mine, and my cheeks warmed up at the thoughts of the prospects it held. I couldn’t possibly look him in the eyes at that very moment, lest I spontaneously combust.

We stepped into the vast reception area of the hotel, our footsteps echoing throughout the quiet of the hall. One sole receptionist sat idly behind the counter who reacted animatedly upon our arrival. She greeted us warmly despite the odd time of the day; it was almost as if this wasn’t her first time encountering lately nightly visitors. Sung Gyu leaned against the counter and requested for a room. I remained quiet, slightly embarrassed and red in the face. The receptionist was unfazed as she looked through the availability, and Sung Gyu, impatiently as ever, drummed his fingers against the marble surface. He caught me watching him, met my eyes and he smiled his disarming smile, making my eyes lose its pace.

“Sir, we don’t have any more double rooms available” Informed the receptionist politely.

“T’s fine, what do you have?” He inquired hurriedly.

“Well, we have only the family rooms...and-,”

“Great!” Sung Gyu echoed enthusiastically, the drumming of his fingers halted. “We’ll take one”

The receptionist stared at Sung Gyu, a bit perplexed and then looked at her computer once more.

“The family room is equipped with two double beds and a single bed as well...”

“I don’t suppose that would be a problem” Sung Gyu sighed, reaching for his wallet. “Do you take card?”

“Absolutely” The receptionist hesitated, and Sung Gyu met my eyes for a moment, a mischievous twinkle inside them. “But sir...are you sure about it?” The receptionist prodded on.

“Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be” Sung Gyu held out his card towards her, a small smile donning his lips.

The receptionist took the card gingerly from his hand and laid a sheaf of papers before him; Sung Gyu hurriedly filled everything in, finishing off with a quick signature, pushed everything towards the receptionist and picked up the bags. Then he turned towards me, taking my hand.

“Right, lets go” He muttered and made to leave, but the receptionist’s voice held us back. When I glanced back at her, she was smiling in this funny sort of way, Sung Gyu’s card alone with the card of the room held in her hands. “Sir you forgot these”

“Oh, right” Sung Gyu smiled cheekily, his ears turning red and I had to do everything to hold back my laughter, which I failed at once we reached the elevator. He chuckled as he haphazardly stuffed his credit card into the pocket, and I covered my face so as not to embarrass him further with my laughter. I suppose I was just too nervous that I distracted myself with the unnecessary details. In my mind, my thoughts were relentless. I thought about Sung Gyu, about his beautiful hands, about the softness of his lips, his breath in my ears and his warmth against me. I thought about the possibilities that the next few hours of my life held. And then the elevator dinged.

Our room was in the furthest corner of the corridor, and as we made our way towards it, I glanced over at Sung Gyu and saw him holding back his laughter. I wasn’t sure what he’d suddenly remembered which cracked him up; but that didn’t stop me from letting out a snort. Then he pressed a finger on his lips and went “Ssh!” as if it wasn’t him who caused it the first place.

By the time we arrived at our room, however, the atmosphere between us had definitely changed. Sung Gyu opened the door for me, and entered after my, quietly closing the door behind us. As expected, the room was a vast expanse, suited for a family, equipped with two large beds and one single bed lined along. The massive glass panels to the very edge of the room were overlooking the city beyond us, and a massive mirror with a dark frame, donned with intricate patterns was placed in a rather questionable angle to the middle bed. The curtains were parted and remained unmoving like two looming ghosts. Sung Gyu turned on the lights, slightly dimmed, and proceeded to pull off his shoes. I quietly followed, pulling my boots off me. He proceeded to take off his scarf, his jacket, pulled up the sleeves of his shirt and undid his watch on his hand. I stared down at his arm, strong, dark and beautiful, and then I averted my gaze. My eyes fell onto the three beds, nicely made, and I said before I could stop myself; “What are we going to do with three beds?”

I thought Sung gyu would respond with something ridiculous, obscene even. I thought he would do or say something that his usual self would. But I suppose we weren’t in the element anymore, or he had finally eased into that particular disposition of a person who’s about to bed with someone. He looked over at me, his gaze warm and captivating, a gentle smile on his lips. It was the kind of smile that I hadn’t seen before. A kind of smile that seemed to hold stories, so many things that he couldn’t put into words. He Undid the top button of his shirt and a ran a hand through his hair.

“You can...settle down. I’ll be out soon” He muttered in a sort of lowly, husky tone, his gaze fixed on me, and as he moved past me towards the bathroom, I breathed in his musky scent. Then he soon disappeared behind the door. Left behind in the vast expanse of the room was me and my muddled-up thoughts for a long while. I took off my scarf and jacket, laid them out carefully and stared at myself in the mirror; looking back at me was a completely different person whom I vaguely recognised as myself. But something has changed, definitely. I was bolder, happier; more beautiful, even. I was in love.

A moment later, Sung Gyu stepped out of the bathroom and cleared his throat. I looked up to see him just smiling at me, a face towel in his hand, his hair askew, his sleeves rolled up, and I held my breath.

“You can use it” He told me, not a single insinuation on what I supposed would happen after this point of time. I imagined that he was as nervous as I was, as someone who, just like he said, respected the order of things. Sung Gyu wouldn’t just launch into it. He was slowly easing me into it.

I nodded, pressed my lips into a line, and moved past him into the bathroom. As soon as I locked the door behind me, I leaned against the door and let out a small cry. This was ridiculous, honestly. Who would have thought I would end up bedding with an attractive man when I had initially decided to run away from them? Just earlier when I had left home for good, I was persistent on avoiding men, not getting involved with them as long as I possibly could. It wasn’t that I particularly despised them. It was that I just involved myself too much and against my own will that I was beginning to get confused by what wanted and what I supposedly should. Not once did even imagine that I would meet a man who would put everything into perspective, spark that one desire in me; to be wanted, to be needed. Now I was in a point of no return.

I washed my face and took all the time I needed, secluding myself, immersing myself in my own thoughts. The room was so quiet that I could hear the sound of my own breath, my thoughts so loud around me. The time on my watch read somewhere past three in the morning. It was almost dawn. I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror; and just like before, a different person stared back at me. I wondered what Sung Gyu must have possibly felt, that moment in the alleyway when he moved in and claimed my lips. I could still remember the taste of his lips, I could feel his warmth, his scent, his everything all over me. But just what did he feel when he looked into my eyes at that time?

My thoughts were muddled when I stepped out of the bathroom, and I remained by the glass door for far too long, stilled in the moment. Before me, Sung Gyu stood by the vast glass panelled windows, hands buried in his pockets, his back to me as he contemplatively gazed ahead. The lights coming from the street below casted ripples along his dark skin; he was mesmerizing. I wondered if I was somewhere in his thoughts. I wondered is he thought about nothing else, just like how he seemed to take up the entirety of my mind. Then, tentatively, I made my presence clear. I took one slow step at a time, all until I was in the middle of the room, somewhere past the first two massive beds towards the one in the very corner. Sung Gyu felt me behind him, and he turned around, a glassy sheen in his eyes.

For a moment it was just me and him as the rest of the world disappeared around us. We stared at each other across the room, him standing still, his arms still buried in his pockets. Us lost in our own world. He stepped towards me then, his eyes gazing deep into mine, and I could feel him in my entire being. I stayed rooted to where I stood, my hands fisted on the either sides of me, and soon he was there, a significant presence before me, and I lost all my good reasoning. I stopped thinking for a while; and soon we were in the element, Sung Gyu and I. He stepped closer to me, he scent in my breath, his warmth engulfing me. I raised my eyes into the glassy ones of his, caught that silver of a sparkle which, I felt, was a secret of our own. His strong arms were soon circling my waist, one up the curve of my neck, moving my hair to a side. I closed my eyes as his lips lowered to mine.

He kissed me, tentatively at first, and testing the boundaries, fumbling gently as if he was quietly questioning me. A silent invitation which I felt to the core of my being, and my desire raised in multitudes. In response, my own arms found themselves feeling urgently up his neck, then around him. He pulled away from me for a split of a moment, and I opened my eyes.

“Is this okay?” He asked me, and I nodded before I moved boldly and brushed his lips along mine. “More than okay” I whispered to him, and he smiled before he kissed me again.

Then it was stronger, bolder, with fiery gratifying passion as the entire world fell away. He kissed me, deep, strong and long; his arms wound around me, his fingers feeling me urgently over the thin material of my shirt. He kissed my lips, pulled away the slightest and then started leaving butterfly kisses along my jaw, down my neck and I felt his warm breath on the valley of my shoulder; I closed my eyes, my fingers burying mindlessly in his hair and revelling in the pleasure of his lips on me. He propelled me back as he kissed me, and so I followed his quiet request, stepping backwards carefully until I felt the softness of the sheets on my calves. I lowered myself to sit on the edge of the bed, my fingers clutching onto the cloudy softness of the quilt. He stood between my parted legs, pressing a knee against the bed beside me, all as he continued to kiss me, his arms raising my face towards him. I ran my hand along his waist, pulled him closer by his belt loops and pulled his shirt off the refrains. His hands were unhurried and tentative as he reached for the bow on my shirt. He pulled it undone, then his fingers felt my skin. We were quiet, still. We weren’t saying a word. Yet, as quiet as we were, as he slowly lowered me against the soft bedding underneath, as our clothes and minds came undone; we were talking, we were still talking. And we continued.

❄

It was almost dawn, and we lied quietly among a mass cloud of sheets, wound around each other and in our own thoughts. Sung Gyu lied beside me, slowly threading his fingers through my hair. He’d fix my bangs occasionally, then push them back before bringing them over my eyes again. He’d push my hair to a side afterwards, and kiss tentatively on my forehead, my eyes and the tip of my nose. I revelled in the feel of his lips on me, and above me I held up my arm, running my finger across the comic strip that he drew. I took note of all the details that I hadn’t seen in the dark; and now they had me thinking. Thinking hard.

“What are you thinking about” Sung Gyu asked me as if he’d delved into my mind. His fingers were in my hair, yet again, yet his eyes were on me, watching me expectantly. I glanced up at him and sighed. “Things...” I said.

“What things?”

I stayed quiet, not having the sheer ability to put my thoughts into words. It has been the best, tonight. Almost dreamy, magical; surreal. When I had left my house, so many hopes fisted in my hands, meeting someone who’d change my life forever wasn’t a part of it. When I met him for the first time, running for the same cab, fighting over indifferences, I hadn’t thought I would end up falling in love with him. And now I realised how so many things could happen in such a little time. I was beginning to believe what my mother told me about stories. They happened to you when you least expected them to. And so did mine.

“Is it about tomorrow?” He asked me gently. I met his eyes and smiled. “Tonight” I corrected him. “It’s Christmas today”

“Ah” He made a face. “Totally skipped my mind”

I laughed, which dispersed as soon as I came to. It was almost as if I couldn’t have happy thoughts while the truth remained. I couldn’t help myself either; the magical night has almost come to an end, easing me back into reality. It wasn’t morning yet; but if I looked out the vast pane of the window at the horizon beyond us, I would see the hazy lavender of the approaching dawn. In a matter of hours, the night would be over; and I had no choice but to return to my ordinary life. I looked over at Sung Gyu hovering above me, and my heart constricted. I would return to my life, but then what?

I searched in his eyes, unable to put my thoughts into words; as surreal as it was, the reality was slowly dawning upon me. It’s been strange, for me as well as for him. But what did he honestly think about me? About us? About this whole arrangement? What if what happened tonight was solely the magical turn of events while what he really wanted...was not this?

I couldn’t stop myself then, when the words slipped past my lips almost on their own accord. “Do you think this is a onetime thing?” I asked him, my voice solely a whisper that I doubted he even heard me.

But he most certainly did. “What is?” He returned.

“This...” I hesitated, and gestured between us. “This. This...you and me, and tonight....and this whole thing...” I sighed and dared to gaze into his eyes. “It just feels surreal to me”

Sung Gyu smiled. “I have to agree on that” He whispered, leaned in and kissed me softly on my lips. I felt him, then, I felt him so strong and so real, right in the core of me in a way that I had never felt anyone before. We connected, that I could tell. We found ourselves within each other. But that’s been only a few magical hours, and... would it be enough?

“Eunji” He called me, his breath fanning against my skin.

“Hm?”

“I was thinking” He started, and slowly moved his hand to thread his fingers through mine. He pressed my hand against the pillow beneath me, and his eyes fell onto the comic strip that he’d drawn. He stared at it for the longest while, and I held my breath. “I was thinking about what you said, about stories...”

My heart picked up. “And...?”

“And I thought...” He said, then met my eyes. “I thought this could be our story...”

I parted my lips, but there was nothing I could do or say except for squeezing his hand which was in mine, and then softly calling his name. “Sung Gyu-Ssi...”

“It’s not...a one-time thing, I swear to you, I...” He trailed off, hesitated and closed his eyes. “God, Eunji, you have no idea what you’re doing to me”

“Oh...” I held his gaze.

“I look at you once, and I see my whole life ahead of me, the life I could have with you, and just how beautiful and happy it all is going to be...”

As he spoke to me, I could feel the sincerity in his voice, and there was hope in his eyes. Perhaps, tonight, for the few hours that passed, our feelings must have been mutual. Perhaps, just like he’d told me, we were writing our own love story. It was difficult for me to believe him at first, because not once had I heard anything more honest and heartfelt before in my life. I had met my fair share of men, gone to bed with them several times; but they had all ended with me pulling my dress on, calling a taxi and fleeing the night; in many occasions, never to meet again. Tonight, I realised with a pang, I was still in my lover’s arms, and he was muttering to me what could be the most beautiful things that I have ever been told.

So, I realised, this could be it. My love story. This could be my fate, the reason why I had run away from home, the reason why everything which followed right after had to happen, leading us to this moment.

I raised my hands and put my arms around his neck. He hovered above me, and I pulled him against me, pressing my lips on him. “Do you think this is it, then? Our love story?” I muttered against his lips.

“As long as we want it to be” He smiled.

“So do you?” I whispered in return.

“You have no idea” He mumbled, his lips moving along mine, and he kissed me again. We were quiet for a moment, hearts and minds unravelling. His fingers were in my hair, his other hand propped up beside me, and his scent in my lungs; his warmth was all over me. For that moment, I delved in his universe, and nothing had ever felt better. He pulled away after a moment then, and I brought down a hand to cup the side of his face. A new thought had appeared in my mind.

“Let’s run away then” I told him, and he looked down at me quizzically.

“Hm?”

“Let’s run away, lets elope together. Wherever you have to go, I’ll come with you”

Sung Gyu gazed down at me for a moment too long, pressed his lips together, and I felt a faint tinge of disappointment in me. He wanted me, but not enough to run away together?

“Eunji” He sighed and slowly arranged the hair that had fallen on my face. “You know it doesn’t work that way”

“What do you mean?” I asked, rolling out of his grasp. He seemed troubled, at least in my eyes he did. After having run away, himself, after having created this whole world for me, he just couldn’t want me enough to do that for me? He lied on his side then, and grasped be by my bare shoulders to prompt me to face him. “We can’t elope together” He said.

“But why not?” I frowned. “I don’t understand, we’ve run away tonight. You did. I did. And we-,”

“Ssh, ssh...hold on” He whispered, moved closer and kissed me gently on my lips, silencing me. “True...but we both saw how that turned out, didn’t we? We weren’t running away. We were foolishly escaping something that could be otherwise fixed. We just didn’t know how”

Unable to understand what he was trying to tell me, I just blinked at him.

“Listen” He said, almost determined. “We don’t have to elope. Instead, we’re going to do this the right way”

“And how is that?” I inquired.

“First, we’re going to go back home, both of us. Then tonight we’re going to our respective dinners”

I felt something raising inside of me. Exasperation, frustration. For a moment I thought he hadn’t gotten the gist of the reason why I had left home the first place. “How is that going to fix anything?”

“Ssh, listen” He muttered in a quiet, soothing way. “We’re going to our dinners Eunji, and then we’re going to tell them no. To our respective dates, to our families, everyone. We’re telling them no. We’re going to take control of our lives, and then we will escape. I will come for you, to exactly where you are. Then we’ll see from there, okay?”

I let my mind absorb the sense of his words, and mull it over for a moment in that contemplative silence. He was watching me expectantly, and when he met my eyes, he smiled at me encouragingly. “I will come for you, I promise you that. I will come for you”

I stared at him for a moment, and still quite unconvinced, I pulled away from him. “Right. We have to exchange numbers first”

“Alright” He smiled.

And then for the next five minutes, we were looking through the scattered clothes, searching for our phones, putting hands in the pockets of those we could reach from the bed. In the end, we both realised that our phones we in our over-coats, which were lying on the mantel piece which we most certainly couldn’t reach under the circumstances. What he located, however, was the bag of things we got from convenience store. He pulled out the felt pen, and I mechanically held out my hand. He carefully wrote down his number, his name; all in clear and distinct handwriting. I took his strong, tanned arm in mine and wrote down my own details in large legible letters across his fore arm. He looked down at my writing, and then he laughed. “Now that wouldn’t go unnoticed”

I pouted, he gazed at me for a moment and he softened in response. “Come here” He said to me, almost in a lowly whisper, and he put away the pen before he gathered me in his arms. He laid me down carefully as he hovered above me. Then he kissed me again, on my forehead, my eyes, the tip of my nose and then tentatively, on my lips. I closed my eyes as he breathed me in, and I could swear the time had stilled for that moment. Then he pulled away.

“Eunji-ah” He called me softly, and I caught the incessant sparkle in his eyes, the same sparkle I had witnessed in him whenever he spoke about something he loved. “I understand...how you must be feeling. And I’m sorry”

“What for?” I muttered questioningly.

“For not being understanding enough”

“I don’t understand” I shook my head.

“Earlier...I wasn’t, you know, rejecting you when I said we couldn’t...” He trailed off and let out a sigh. I pondered his words for a moment and chewed my bottom lip. Of course, my mind was elsewhere, interpreting him differently. I had lived my entire life being controlled by anyone but me that the next moment when I felt it wasn’t in my hands again, I panicked. I was terrified that he was going to leave me, I was terrified that he didn’t perhaps, love me enough to own me. I was afraid of settling, I was afraid of marriage because I always felt that it wasn’t something that would last long. I was afraid of being unloved and left alone, and I had, almost immediately thought that I was going to be left behind.

“It’s...it’s okay” I told him and stretched my lips into a smile. “I wasn’t thinking either...I was just-,”

“Afraid...?” Sung Gyu finished for me, and I realised that it was exactly that. Afraid. Afraid of this magical night coming to an end, afraid of us becoming mere memories, afraid of the future that the reality held for me. He gazed down at me empathetically, and then he stroked my cheek. “Tonight...it’s been the best, and I want it to last forever...”

“Sung Gyu-Ssi...” I mumbled, and he smiled softly in response.

“Nothing’s going to change” he slowly shook his head. “Nothing’s going to change, Eunji. You’d always be the girl whom I fell in love with, and I, for you, would be the man you first met”

At that I made a face; so, did he, and then he burst out laughing, dragging me along with it.

“Well, obviously not the man you first met but-,”

“The one I fell in love with” I supplied, and he visibly swallowed, his expression becoming serene and sincere. His gaze fixed solely into mine. “Yes...that...”

Then we were silent for a very long time, him watching me, and me gazing at him. In the dim light of the room, I took in the sight of him, tracing every big and little detail so intensely as if I was trying to form a portray of him in my mind. His smile was gentle, beautiful, his eyes held my world within them. Every time he kissed me, my mind went into a whirlwind, and I felt him, so resiliently in every inch of my being. Perhaps this was how you realised who ‘The one’ was going to be, the one who’d sweep you off your feet, the one who’d complete you, the one who’d be your story. And for me, Kim Sung Gyu was the one. He’d swept me right off my feet, and my life would never be the same again.

He moved to kiss me again, and I let him. I let him carry me away to the worlds that I had never seen, I let him turn me into a person that I had always been afraid to become. He touched me in a way that it imprinted in my skin. He felt me in a way that I absorbed him to the core of me. As he kissed me, felt me and made love to me, I realised what it truly felt like to belong to someone, utterly and completely. I felt him in me, an emotional connection that I had never before experienced. I realised what it felt like to be in love.

❄

We slept for only a couple of hours, but it was warm; it was comfortable. I had never felt so peaceful in a sleep for ages in the past few days. Despite the brief span of time, I woke up in bliss; my mind refreshed, and rolled straight into Sung Gyu’s arms.

He was still sound asleep, his eyes remaining peacefully still as his lashes rested on the apples of his cheeks. In the blooming daylight, I could see him clearer; the colour of his skin, the contours of his face, all the imperfections that I hadn’t seen before. His hair, a complete mess, beckoned my fingers to leisurely run through it. And I noticed, in an unsuspecting moment, that he made this tiny adorable sound in his sleep. It was small; subtle. Like a chipmunk. He’d scrunch his nose when he did that. Then he’d smack his lips like a child. I smiled, almost naturally, fondly watching him as he slept. I realised that it was my first time doing this, watching the man that I went to bed with as he slept. He was far from the one I recalled from within the sheets the night before. My face heated up at even the thought of it. But then again, it was blissful. I could still love him, I could still imagine myself going to bed with him and waking up the next morning to this sight which I’d revel in, each time, like it was the very first.

Sung Gyu woke up upon feeling the tips of my fingers on his skin. He caught my hand sleepily, his eyes still closed; or perhaps not, I just couldn’t tell. He kissed each of my fingers and smiled.

“Morning” I greeted him. Instead of greeting me back, he put his arms around my waist and pulled me to him. “Five more minutes” He groaned, his voice so deep and husky in my ears.

“I’d love that” I muttered and kissed on his shoulder. “But it’s sun up already”

“Hm?” He opened one eye. “What’s the time?”

“Can’t tell” I wondered. “Guess eight-ish?”

There was a second of a break, and then he was fully awake. He sat up, eyes widened, hair a bird’s nest and the covers pooled around his waist. He stared at me in sort of a drunken stupor as if he was seeing me for the first time. “Shit” He said. “It’s late, we got to go”

 

Then the next fifteen minutes we spent hurriedly pulling ourselves together. He gathered his clothes as I gathered mine, he helped me dress up, clasped my bra from my back and I buttoned his shirt as he fixed my hair. We both brushed our teeth together and I accidentally sprayed on the bathroom mirror when he made me laugh. Another fifteen minutes, Sung Gyu was by the vast windows, pulling the curtains open to let the morning sun inside.

“It’s Christmas” He said; and sure enough, down below the city was covered in a fine sheen of snow. I absorbed the sight and took a deep breath. It was morning, and it was Christmas. It was time for me to head straight back to my life.

“Are you okay?” Sung Gyu asked me gently as he stepped towards me. His arm wound around my waist, pulling me against him. Almost naturally, I delved into his comfort, his warmth, and breathed into his chest. “It’s Christmas” I told him. I hoped the insinuation reached him fine.

He pulled away from me so that we stood facing each other. He cupped my face in both his hands and kissed me. “In case I wouldn’t be able to do this for a while” He muttered as he pulled away.

Panicking instantly, I caught both his wrists in my hands. “You’re coming tonight”

He smiled, his eyes sparkled like clusters of brilliant stars. “I can’t possibly wait until then, now, can I?”

His eyes, his smile, his words told me everything that he wouldn’t put into words; I understood him. He pulled me back into his embrace then. He kissed me again. He kissed me in the way that a part of him stayed engraved in me, a part to hold on to as long as we stayed away from each other. He held me in his arms, I felt his heart hammering beneath my palm. There were things we should have told each other but we were simply afraid to. I suppose everything had a right place and a time to happen. That had to be how fate worked.

We waited for the taxi hand in hand, and it was strange, honestly. We were going back to exactly where we started; but only, our lives weren’t the same anymore. He held my hand even as we climbed into the car. His hand was warm in the cold winter wind, his smile brilliant than the morning sun.

“Where to sir?” Called the driver from the front seat. There was a beat of silence, and Sung Gyu glanced at me, shell-shocked. “Wait...” he said and leaned forward in his seat, still grasping tightly onto my hand. “You...you’re the same driver from last night...?”

There was a moment of silence then, the driver fixed the rear-view mirror, took in the sight of us and widened his wrinkled kind eyes. “oh! Omona! It’s the pair of you!” His lips morphed into a sort of understanding fatherly smile. “Now that took a turn, didn’t it?”

Sung Gyu shrugged. “Fate works in strange ways, I guess” He said, gazing at me disarmingly and I could swear I died a little death inside.

The driver chuckled from the front. “It sure does, it sure does. Where to, sir?”

Sung Gyu looked down at me, I gazed back at him; then I leaned forward and told the driver exactly where he picked us up the previous night.

“But Eunji” Sung Gyu started, looking at me in concern. I just shook my head and kissed his surreptitiously on his hand. “We’re going right back to where we started”

 

The driver dropped us off exactly where he picked us up the previous night. He street was livelier than the night before, and it was remarkable, how so many things have changed within that short span of time. Where we started, as it happened, was also in front of Sung Gyu’s apartment complex. He lived in a condominium in the very top floor, he said. Instead of going up to his home, however, he walked me to my own.

The walk was brief and quiet. My own home wasn’t that far off from the town; just a few turns through the lanes and soon our massive planks of gates were standing before me. I held onto Sung Gyu’s hand a bit longer. I hadn’t the heart to let go, even for a little while. But I knew that I had to. Sung Gyu let me have my time, almost as if he understood me. Then slowly, tentatively, he retrieved his hand from mine and stood before me. Then he brought me towards him, his fingers sliding on the back of my head, and kissed me sweet and long on my forehead.

“Remember what I said?” He asked me. I nodded my head.

“Tell them no”

“Tell them no” Sung Gyu nodded approvingly.

“Then call you”

“Call me” Sung Gyu smiled. “And I’ll come for you, to wherever you are”

We fell silent then, and I knew that it was time for us to part ways. But there was this one quiet question floating in my mind, pestering me; struggling to break through. And so, I allowed it to.

“Sung Gyu-Ssi”

“Hm?” He raised his brows.

“Do you love me?”

There was a beat of silence as he watched me, observed me. Then he smiled. “Yes. Yes, I do”

My heart stilled for a moment, and I wanted to hear him telling me, right in the exact words. Perhaps it was asking him for more, but-,

“I’ll tell you...all about it” He said, his voice breaking into my thoughts. He met my eyes, his own crinkling adoringly. “When we meet again”

 

He kissed me goodbye. But it felt so much more than a farewell; it was a ‘See-you-again’. Only so many unplanned encounters could leave you with an everlasting impression. The one with Sung Gyu, however, had taken a large part of my heart with it. It had left me completely and utterly in love.

My mother didn’t ask me much. As overprotective as she was of me, she trusted me to be responsible. When I told her that I was out with my friends, she didn’t question any further. She took note of my bag then questioned what that had been for. I shrugged, told her it was a sleepover, and that was that. I returned to my room, remaining the same as I left it. I had been foolish the previous night. I’d thought my parents would panic, knowing fully well that they knew me for my reputation of staying away from home. Not just anywhere; at hotels with dates or with friends in their luxury apartments. They must have tried to call them, and they probably called my best friend. I suspected she was out drinking and to get away with it, she must have drunkenly lied that I was with her.

My credit cards remained untouched on my dressing table, the letter I had written for them still left inside the book I had kept it in. I gazed at them for a long while and let out a sigh. All the things I had gone through to escape that could have been easily resolved. It took the two of us and so many wrong turns to make us realise that.

I slept through the day, all our nightly adventures rerunning in my dreams. I woke up with a startle at the sound of my mother’s voice, calling me awake. She was right by the foot of my bed, a hangar in her hand as she hurriedly pulled off a beige suit of mine to be pressed.

“It’s almost six in the evening, you’ve been asleep the whole time!” She complained in her usual motherly way, and instinctively, I looked out the window. It was still light as day, the sky a beautiful lavender. I looked at her miserably. As ready as I was to reject my potential suitor, I didn’t feel like attending the dinner party the first place.

“What?” asked my mother as soon as she noticed me. “What’s with that face? Shouldn’t you get out of bed and get ready?”

I pouted my lips in response and lazily put my hands in my hair. “Do I have to go?”

My mother sighed, her curls doing this little hop as her shoulders fell. She looked exhausted. I bet she’d been running errands the rest of the day. “Eunji-ah, you promised me that you would go...”

“But...that was before” I shrugged. “Can’t I, like, sit this one out?”

“And waste that young man’s time?” Echoed my mother. I went quiet at that, and she regarded me for a brief moment before she sat on the edge of the bed. “Eunji-ah...this would be the last time, I promise you”

“I won’t be wasting anyone’s time” I told her slowly, not meeting her eyes. “You said it was going to be a party”

“A dinner, not a party. Only that this time both the families would be there”

“Still...” I pursed my lips. I thought of Sung Gyu; waiting for me somewhere out there in his own unfortunate occasion, waiting to escape. I could just not go to the party. I could just avoid it. I could say no without really being there, and I could save him from all that trouble much earlier. I could do that.

My mother’s warm hand landed on my shoulder, and I glanced up at her. She looked weary, her eyes sunken, her skin gone grey. She’d married young, and although it took long before she had me, my mother was still pretty young. But she appeared too old for her age, as if life had been sucked out of her. She spent her days, mechanically responding to my father in every way possible; not realising what he was doing to her. Every passing day, a part of her life disappeared, her colour faded. Marriage was doing that to her. And to say that she had met him in a chance encounter. That thought terrified me.

“Eunji-ah...what’s going on?” She asked me slowly, and it was her voice which brought me back from my thoughts. “Hm?” I looked at her, and turned away. “Nothing...”

“It can’t be nothing” Said my mother. “What is it?”

“It’s just-,” the words escaped my lips before I could stop myself. “Mum, what if...what if this man I’d marry would take my freedom away? What if...what if he made me do things for him, stop me from doing the things I love and basically control my life. What then? Even for you. I know dad is nice and hardworking and everything...but I feel, sometimes he’s just overworking you, controlling you. I mean...” I took her hand apologetically when she remained silent. “Mum...look at you. Sometimes you look like life’s drained out of you. I love dad, but I don’t like it that he makes you work all the time...and I’m afraid I’d have to be the same one day. I mean...I love you mum, but I don’t think I’d be able to live like that”

There was silence from her part, but it didn’t last long. She clasped my hand in both of hers and smiled at me; a smile which was small, nostalgic; hurt. For a moment I thought I had crossed a line there. But then she leaned over and kissed me on my cheek. “Eunji-ah...you don’t have to do all that. For you, life would be different”

“M-mum...” I started, and trailed away.

“Well, I realise that your dad is...treating me a certain way. He’s a good man. He truly is. It’s just how he’d been raised, you know. It’s something that we both can’t help”

“But...” I sighed. “Mum...he’s supposed to love you”

My mother smiled in this saddest way. “Sometimes I like to believe that he does” She sighed. I stared at her, my mouth agape, and I realised, everything she’d said and done up to now, about him, about them weren’t as sincere as the sad smile that donned her at that moment. She looked at me and squeezed my hand. “You see Eunji, sometimes our lives don’t work out the way that we always want them to be. Sometimes it leaves us without a choice; and we’d have to accept it as it is”

“I... I don’t get it” I gaped at her. “You and dad...you guys had the perfect love story. You two met in this perfect situation and fell in love and... and... isn’t love a choice, mum? You chose to love him, and you had the choice not to. But me...I-I am expected to love one of these suitors that you bring me, any of whom I wouldn’t love for the life of-,”

“I lied” My mother interrupted me, and I fell quiet. The world started spinning around me.

“W-what?” My voice was small, hoarse.

“I lied to you, okay?” My mother continued, refusing to meet my eyes. “Your father and I, we never met in a chance encounter. The karaoke bar, the break up; none of it happened. We met just like you meet these men. Arranged.”

Something snapped inside me, my entire childhood crashing around me. Their perfect love story wasn’t perfect after all, simply because it never happened. And here I was, desperately searching and wishing for my own.

And that, somehow, had led me in a different way. I hadn’t failed. I’d found my love story. I’d met a man who held his heart on his sleeve and carried the universe in his eyes. I couldn’t be happier. Had I not been fooled by the story that my mother created; perhaps I wouldn’t have run away from home. I wouldn’t have met him. None of it would have happened. I wanted to hate my mother for lying to me all this time, but I couldn’t.

“Oh mum...” I muttered, and I couldn’t help myself as I reached over and held her in my arms. “I’m sorry”

“Don’t be” She replied, hugging me close. “I just...I didn’t want you to have an arranged marriage. I wanted you to lead a life like all these girls do; fall in love with a man who would give you everything and-,”

“Mum” I whispered and pulled away from her. “Thank you...”

My mother blinked. “What for?”

“I don’t know” I shrugged. “Because of your perfect love story, I started being obsessed with mine. And I started hating it, meeting these men. I wanted to have my own one day...and-and I...” my cheeks heated up as memories from previous night surged back into my mind. “Actually, I met someone...”

The smile that took over my mother’s face at that very moment was so breathtaking. It had been ages since I last saw her smiling this way. She placed both her hands on either of my cheeks. “Oh Eunji-ah, tell me all about it”

“I would...but” I shrugged and glanced down at the suit on my bed. My mother followed my gaze, and she understood. “Oh...oh dear we can’t not go to the dinner”

At this point, Sung Gyu’s words surged into my mind. I could do this now. I felt braver, stronger. I had purpose in my hands. “We’ll go to the dinner” I told her determinedly. “Then I’ll tell him the truth...mum, the man I met, he’s waiting for me. He’s going come for me...”

“Oh Eunji-ah....” There were tears in her eyes. “How is he like? And...and does he love you?”

My cheeks warmed up, my mind filled with millions of thoughts of him. I recalled the moment he kissed me goodbye, how he said he loved me in a way that he didn’t really have to put it in words. “He’s...beautiful. And yes, he does”

❄

Few hours later, my parents and I were in my father’s car, driving through the snowy streets. The world had lightened up for Christmas, almost every single store decorated lavishly for the festivities; awash in red, green and gold. It was quiet, save for the sound of the car. I had my phone clutched in my hand like a treasure, waiting for it to buzz again.

Shortly after the revelation to my mother, I checked my phone to find just about three missed calls and five messages, all from Kim Sung Gyu. Until that moment I guess I was a bit doubtful about him, but after seeing the messages, I realised that I had been wrong after all. He was asking after my well-being, informed me that he’d gotten home. Since I hadn’t responded for a long time, he’d tried to reach me in every way he could. I could almost imagine him, sitting in his lush condominium house, anxiously waiting for me to respond. After I told him the truth, things went pretty much back to normal. We’d been texting each other since then, mostly to kill the boredom and nervousness of the coming occasion. He told me what he was doing, where he was going, all that. I responded with the same. For a moment, it helped me keep my mind off things. But it couldn’t last for too long as we finally arrived at the hotel where we were supposed to meet him; the suitor.

It was a fancy western restaurant which I’d visited countless times before in different occasions. The food wasn’t too shabby there; the staff was nice. But I’d met far too many men there that I felt would I meet another one who’d disappoint me, I’d combust.

My phone pinged as soon as we stepped outside to the cold winter evening. It was snowing slightly; tiny white specs falling on my shoulders and my hair. I pulled out my phone surreptitiously and my mother who noticed this, immediately fell into a conversation with my father. We were in this together, my mother and I. I was going to say no to the suitor, not continuing forth from the first meeting. My mother will be backing me up, and when Sung Gyu’s finally here to take me away, she’d take care of everything for me.

‘I am already here’ Sung Gyu had sent me, just a generic informative text which still had my heart flying. ‘Me too’ I replied, and followed up with; ‘And I am going to do it’

As soon as the text was sent, he’d started to type in a reply.

‘I’ll be waiting’ he’d replied. ‘Then I’ll come for you’

I smiled, my eyes focused solely on my phone as I almost mechanically followed my parents up the stairs. The other family seemed to have booked a room for the dinner, which was all good as I felt bad to be rejecting someone in a crowd.

‘Can’t wait!’ I replied enthusiastically, then as I traversed the vast corridor, I watched my phone; the screen indicated that the message was still being typed. I waited patiently, but we were almost there. We were reaching a tall mahogany door; and I could almost hear the gentle chatter inside. My parents glanced at me and I immediately looked up at them. The door opened in the same time as my phone pinged. I followed my parents inside; but my eyes were on my phone; glued on the message that he’d just sent to me.

It was a love heart. He was taking so long to send me a love heart. I almost broke out in a giggle.

At that very moment, my father soundly cleared his throat. My mother reached for my hand, lowering my phone. And I glanced up. Then I did a double take. There was the family of my suitor sitting there for me, all in a perfect line. An old woman with a pair of wise eyes; an elegant lady, a man with greying hair...amongst them was another. The brown specs in the dark mess was hard to go unnoticed. I stopped in my tracks, my breath held in my throat. And slowly, he raised his head.

There was Sung Gyu, Kim Sung Gyu seated right in front of me; he still had his phone in his hands.

At first there was silence. Sung Gyu gazed at me; surprised at first, then disbelief. Then slowly, almost subtly, his face changed. For some strange reason, I knew that mine did too. In a matter of seconds then, we were laughing; both Sung Gyu and I. We were laughing our hearts out as our families remained quiet and confused, in the middle of something that they didn’t know the heads and tails of.

“Wait...” a voice suddenly interrupted our gleeful exchange, and I looked over at whom I assumed his sister. She gestured at between as. “You two already know each other?”

Sung Gyu wasn’t once batting his eyes off me as he replied. “As a matter of fact, we do”

“T-that’s...” Trailed off his sister.

“All the better!” Put in my mum. I supposed she’d gotten hold of the end of the tail already, and she looked at either of us in new-found happiness.

“How do you know Miss Jung, Sung Gyu-ah?” Asked Sung Gyu’s mother quietly as she gazed at him.

“It was a chance encounter” Said Sung Gyu, winked at me, and I died a little death inside. He looked over at his mother. “It’s quite a story, to be honest”

“Strange. Our Sung Gyu never really had stories” Said his mother, and everyone laughed. She looked over at me, and I saw the same wise gaze in hers; just a little kinder and matured. “Well, I would like to hear that story”

Sung Gyu, for a moment, met my eyes. “And we should, from the story teller herself”

❄

I told them the story. I told everyone. I told everyone how I once was a lonely and desperate girl who was afraid to hand her life over to a stranger and ran away from in instead. I told them how I met someone who carried promise in his eyes, and fell in love with him. I told them how he changed my life forever.

One day, when I’d have a daughter of my own, I would have a story to tell. A story of love, fate and chance encounter; about the wonders that the magical Christmas eve held. I would tell her about hope and forgiveness, having faith in her own even as the world crashed around her. Life was a strange thing. I suppose she would know when she’s old enough to understand. At times it felt like its all mapped out for you; like you would know your road ahead. When you looked back from a certain point, however, it would start appearing differently. For me, it seemed like the starry night sky; no right path, no destination. Just clusters of tiny lights scattered about, connecting together to tell a story. Life was just a series of mismatched, connected moments. One moment wouldn’t always connect the next, and it always, always had the unexpected, the moments that you’d have never even dreamed before. There would be people who’d come and fade away, like certain stars that die. But then some others, they appear, they stay, then they change your life forever.

And for me, that was Kim Sung Gyu. Kim Sung Gyu, on that fated Christmas Eve, became my story, my forever, my happily ever after.

❄ ❄ ❄


End file.
